Farmers Weekly NZ August 13 2018

Farming still pulls heartstrings Vol 17 No 32, August 13, 2018

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4 Kiwi exports at risk Vol 17 No 32, August 13, 2018

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Fonterra stagnates Hugh Stringleman

F

hugh.stringleman@nzx.com

ONTERRA’S directors have moved to shore up its balance sheet by retaining earnings and reducing dividends and have treated Shareholders Fund investors badly for the second time in six years.

The likely dividend for the 2017-18 financial year will be 10c a share and FSF unit, already paid out as an interim dividend earlier this year.

The final numbers will be announced on September 13.

The 2013-14 dividend was also 10c when the milk price soared over $8/kg and the input costs for added-value products were so high profit plummeted.

This time the directors have trimmed 5c/kg from the milk price, now forecast to be $6.70, but left their earnings guidance unchanged at 25-30c/share.

New chairman John Monaghan said the co-operative’s balance sheet needed strengthening in an already challenging year because of the damages payment to Danone and the impairment of the Beingmate investment.

“As we said in May the higher milk price, which is good for our farmers, has put pressure on Fonterra’s earnings.

“You never want to have to reduce the milk price at the season’s end but it is the right thing to do and $6.70 remains a strong milk price.”

The directors chose to depart from the amount calculated by the farmgate milk price manual,

an action permitted in the constitution and also taken in 2013-14.

The manual price would have been $6.75, Fonterra confirmed.

“During the process of closing our books for the financial yearend the need for these actions has become clear,” Monaghan said.

“Our forecast performance is not where we expected it would be.

“While the numbers are not finalised our margins were less than we forecasted right across our global ingredients and consumer and food service businesses.”

Market analysts said the unitholders are again being treated like second-class stakeholders when compared with farmer-shareholders.

“Fonterra borrowed a huge amount of money to build processing plants but that has not translated into more income, earnings and dividends,” Craigs Investment Partners senior researcher Mohandeep Singh said.

“That has come at a major cost to investors and a minor cost to farmers.

“The balance sheet is still poor and 50% gearing is high for a commodities company.

“Because milk production is not growing and farmers don’t have to buy shares, the only way to reduce debt is to retain more earnings by cutting dividends.

“Investors also face the uncertainty of the new chief executive taking the company in a new strategic direction.”

Acting on the advice of Singh and colleague Roy Davidson, Craigs recently removed FSF from its NZ equities portfolio because

Let me make it clear this is not a satisfactory performance and we have to do everything we can to turn that around.

Marc Rivers Fonterra

NOT A GOOD LOOK: Fonterra’s last minute action raises a lot of questions, Federated Farmers vice-president Andrew Hoggard says.

of prolonged under-performance.

The confirmed $6.70 payout will be welcomed by farmers but they have lost between $16,000 and $24,000 per average-sized farm in monthly wash-up payments – $8000 from the 5c payout reduction and $8000-$16,000 from the dividend cancellation.

FSF units and Fonterra supply shares dropped 3% in value after the announcement, to below $5.

Chief financial officer Marc Rivers said the moves taken were

to maintain a strong balance sheet and a good credit rating, both very important objectives.

“That gives us leverage to be able to make the investments to continue to grow the business.”

The combination of milk price reduction and dividend cancellation would enable Fonterra to retain $200 millionplus.

“Let me make it clear this is not a satisfactory performance and we have to do everything

we can to turn that around.

“We need to be able to generate strong returns even in an environment of high milk prices.”

Rivers agreed unitholders also need to receive a good return to have an effective FSF structure and liquidity for supply shares.

Federated Farmers vicepresident Andrew Hoggard said farmers’ energy and thoughts will be distracted by calving and the start of the new milk season.

But the cancellation of the final dividend raises a whole lot of questions for him.

“There may be sound reasons, but why now?

“Why not signal this earlier and tell everybody that more earnings must be retained.

“As it happened it looked like last-minute stuff.”

Fonterra Shareholders’ Council chairman Duncan Coull said the board’s rationale and prudence are understandable but the situation is unacceptable.

Creating long-term value is a key responsibility for directors and along with management they face challenges in rebuilding confidence and prudently managing shareholders’ capital.

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NEWS

WEATHER OVERVIEW HIGH pressure is slipping away today with a big northerly quarter airflow moving in, generally a norwester from the Tasman Sea. This will boost temperatures above normal in most regions. A low will cross central New Zealand/the North Island on Tuesday bringing wet weather then behind that more westerlies, which will push eastern NZ up into the late teens again by the end of the week. However, behind this next norwester we might see a colder southerly, briefly, for the country. It’s not locked in yet because it doesn’t look overly powerful. The main theme for the next couple of weeks is dominated by westerly weather. Eastern areas will be drier than usual in both islands.

5 Fonterra’s chance to reassess Fonterra’s double change at the top provides a unique opportunity to reassess its position and move forward boldly again, new chairman John Monaghan says.

Trump puts kiwi exports at risk ������������������������������������� 4 Ewe hoggets limit sheep decline ��������������������������������� 12

Newsmaker ��������������������������������������������������������������26 New Thinking ����������������������������������������������������������27 Opinion ��������������������������������������������������������������������28 World �������������������������������������������������������������������������34

ON FARM STORY

NZX PASTURE GROWTH INDEX – Next 15 days

Pasture Growth Index Above normal Near normal Below normal

7-DAY TRENDS

Wind

Rain Rain on the West Coast on Monday might have some heavy falls then the low and front cross the North Island on Tuesday. After that we see showers in the west, mostly the West Coast. Drier than normal in the east.

High pressure is rolling in so winds will be variable and light for most places. There might even be a brief cool southerly this weekend for some. Norwesters return by Sunday and Monday and next week sees more westerlies.

Highlights/ Extremes

Temperature This week starts with mild northerly quarter winds but by the end of Tuesday or Wednesday we’re back to the westerly quarter, still generally mild. These winds will likely warm up further towards the weekend too.

Frost-free for most.

Nothing too extreme but temperatures are certainly above average nationwide with some days and nights several degrees above normal. Warmest weather will be in the east of both islands. Heaviest rain will be on the West Coast. Very few frosts.

14-DAY OUTLOOK

For further information on the NZX PGI visit www.agrihq.co.nz/pgi Generally speaking a positive outlook for some pasture growth, even if only slight, across NZ over the next week because of much warmer than average air flows in both islands. No major southerlies or big freezes. A major drought has been declared in New South Wales. While not a direct link to NZ it’s worth noting this major drought near us. El Nino might come in this summer but is not confirmed so watch for early drying out in the east.

SOIL MOISTURE INDEX – 10/08/2018

32 Farming still pulls heartstrings The power and speed of international communication was clearly shown to sheep and beef farmers Rob and Rachel Cashmore when tourists uploaded an image that made it to Holland and back to them within a day.

REGULARS Real Estate ���������������������������������������������������������36-40 Employment ������������������������������������������������������������41 Classifieds ����������������������������������������������������������41-42 Livestock ������������������������������������������������������������42-43 Markets ���������������������������������������������������������������44-48 GlobalHQ is a farming family-owned business that donates 1% of advertising revenue to the Rural Support Trust. Thanks to our Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer advertisers this week: $838.

Need help now? You can talk to someone who understands the pressures of farming by phoning your local Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

Source: WeatherWatch.co.nz

For more weather information go to farmersweekly.co.nz/weather

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

3

MPI, farmers air M bovis issues Annette Scott annettescott@globalhq.co.nz A MEETING with Primary Industries Ministry officials has farmers confident they can iron out some controversial areas of the Mycoplasma bovis response.

The cattle disease found in July last year has affected hundreds of dairy and beef farmers over the past 13 months.

A delegation of infected property farmers was invited to meet the officials in Wellington last week.

Ashburton farmer Frank Peters, who lost 55 years of dairy breeding genetics when his herd went to slaughter in May, said he came away from the meeting with some confidence it was a fruitful exercise.

He was one of a dozen graziers, calf rearers, bull beef breeders, sheep and beef and dairy farmers invited to the pow-wow.

“I did come out of the meeting feeling a lot more confident than when I went in.

“They are trying their best. They admitted they made mistakes but they now appear willing to listen to farmers to help them,” Peters said.

“Certainly there’s been a lot of cock-ups.

“MPI admit they didn’t have the resources they needed but in reality anybody wouldn’t have.

Lesson learned.”

Farmers openly aired their views at the meeting.

“Really, the whole lot of everything came back to the big C – communication.

“How can it be improved to give famers some choice.

“MPI needs to tell us what we can’t do and leave it to farmers to work a plan around what they can do.

“There will be inconvenience every way but at least farmers can be part of the best outcome for all with the least disruption when they are in control of their

BACK ON TRACK: It’s been a long hard road with plenty of bumps and emotion and despite there still being some itches and scratches, farmer Frank Peters says. Everyone has worked bloody hard and it’s almost business as usual again on his Ashburton dairy farm.

Photo: Annette Scott

We won’t always get it right but we will make every effort to rectify known issues.

Catherine Duthie MPI own situation,” Peters said.

MPI said it can learn a lot from farmers and now appears willing to learn.

Farmers like himself are keen to help other IP farmers and Peters said farmers urged MPI to up its game in the middle management area.

“This an area where more training is needed and more farmer input will be very helpful.

It’s about farmers helping farmers.

“Nobody can tell you what you

will experience if you haven’t been through it.

“In reality it’s about experience and speaking from experience I know it’s not a good experience but as IP farmers we can help these people.”

Compensation was a hot topic.

“There’s still a lot of haze around compensation and MPI admitted it needs to and can do better.”

It was clear straightforward claims make it through the system but claims with grey areas are in the too-hard basket for far too long.

He described the meeting as constructive and a good, positive step forward.

“Farmers set targets for MPI and these meetings are to continue so we will all sit down again in four to six weeks and measure the progress.”

MPI national incident controller Catherine Duthie said the meeting was valuable for MPI staff.

“We are really trying to interact on a personal level and invite feedback on what we can be doing better.

“It was beneficial for us to hear the individual experiences firsthand from the farmers and to see how we can make improvements.

“It was also an opportunity to find out what is working, such as moving to a farmer-centric approach and having dedicated ICP’s for each farm,” Duthie said.

As expected, lack of communication and the ease and speed of the compensation claim process were key issues.

“We have made assurances we will improve both of these points.

“We won’t always get it right but we will make every effort to rectify known issues.

“As we continue on this response I hope we keep improving and working closely with affected farmers and the farming sector.

“We want farmers who are under surveillance or movement

restrictions to have certainty around what they can expect next in the process and make sure they understand what support is available to them as they go through this challenging time,” Duthie said.

Meantime, it’s business “almost as usual” on Peters’ Ashburton dairy farm.

“It’s been a long hard road with plenty of bumps and emotion along the way but everyone has worked bloody hard and we are very happy to be calving and back milking again.

“There’s still some itches and scratches but we are working through them.”

There are now 38 infected properties – 18 beef, 17 dairy and three lifestyle.

A total of 173 properties that were previously under MPI management have had controls lifted.

MPI is confident it’s on the right track as the plan for phased eradication continues.

4

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Trump puts kiwi exports at risk Nigel Stirling nigel.stirling@globalhq.co.nz THE dairy industry is watching nervously as United States President Donald Trump rolls out new sanctions against Iran and threatens those who do business with it.

At stake is nearly $100 million in annual sales to what has been one of New Zealand’s strongest butter markets.

So while food may be exempt … food trade may be more complicated to transact.

Kimberly Crewther Dairy Coys Assn In 2015 the West reached a deal with Iran to relax sanctions in return for it reining in its nuclear ambitions.

But in May Trump said he remains unconvinced the deal will work and withdrew.

The first sanctions went back on last week with a ban on Iran

buying American dollars and restrictions in minor areas of trade between the two countries.

However, in an attempt to isolate Iran further Trump upped the ante by tweeting a threat to its trade partners.

“Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States.”

A second wave of more significant sanctions are planned for November including a ban on Iranian oil sales.

They could also see banks outside America found to be dealing with Iranian counterparts the US believes are linked to terrorist groups facing sanctions themselves.

Dairy Companies Association executive director Kimberly Crewther said guidelines from the US Treasury in 2013 had confirmed food exports to Iran were permissible on humanitarian grounds along with medicine and medical devices.

However, the exemption was worth little if NZ exporters were to face fresh difficulties repatriating proceeds from sales via the Iranian banking system because of concerns over terrorist links.

“So while food may be exempt … food trade may be more complicated to transact.”

STOP: American President Donald Trump has put sanctions on Iran that he inists other countries must obey.

It would not be the first time that US banking sanctions have stood in the way of NZ’s trade with Iran.

Following the 2015 nuclear deal the then National-led government moved quickly to negotiate veterinary agreements so meat exports to Iran could resume after

a 20 year hiatus.

Exporters, however, were slow to respond with Taylor Preston last May the first to dip its toe back in the market with a small shipment of 50 tonnes while its larger rivals have remained largely on the sidelines.

Former Trade Minister Todd

McClay at the end of 2016 wrote to the banks imploring them to do more to back NZ exporters wanting to trade with Iran.

However, the NZ Bankers Association said members fear being cut out of the US financial system should they be found to have dealt on behalf of exporter clients with Iranian banks later found to have links to terrorist groups.

Because the NZ banks are dependent on borrowing vast amounts on American money markets to fund lending at home, it is simply not worth the risk for most.

The dairy industry is understood to have previously routed payments through offshore financial intermediaries though banking sources have said even that method could face scrutiny if the US is determined to squeeze Iran further.

Crewther said the dairy trade could face further difficulties from a collapse in the buying power of the already weakening Iranian currency as sanctions bite later this year.

Restrictions on shipping lines visiting the country are also a possibility.

Iran is the NZ dairy industry’s 26th largest export market overall.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

5

Fonterra’s chance to reassess

NEWS BRIEFS

Hugh Stringleman

Fly danger fine

hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz

FRUIT fly larvae carried by a tour party leader could have devastated New Zealand’s horticulture industry, Biosecurity NZ says. Officers intercepted the larvae last month in undeclared food with a holiday group from Malaysia at Auckland Airport. The larvae was in chillies. A caterpillar was also detected in some garlic bulbs. “Many horticulture crops are susceptible to attack by fruit fly. Affected fruit and vegetables could be inedible or subject to trade restrictions if the pest became established in NZ,” Biosecurity NZ passenger manager Craig Hughes said.

The tour leader was fined $400 for failing to declare the food package. The intercepted larvae was believed to be Malaysian fruit fly. It attacks more than 60 types of fruit and vegetables.

FONTERRA’S double change at the top provides a unique opportunity to reassess its position and move forward boldly again, new chairman John Monaghan says.

A double change is certainly not what Fonterra planned but every ball bowled has to be played on its merits.

“This is a natural juncture to reflect, breathe some fresh air into Fonterra, do some things slightly differently, look at our whole earnings strategy and then make some decisions.”

Monaghan would not call the process a change in strategy necessarily but a re-evaluation.

Some big matters are on the agenda, including the review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act by the Ministry for Primary Industries and Fonterra’s efforts to gain milk market share.

Fonterra wants an end to the open entry and exit provisions and the potential subsidisation of competitors.

“The challenge to all of New Zealand, not just Fonterra, is that newcomers begin with a business model based on subsidised milk and run the risk of excess capacity.”

The 2018 financial year results will be reported in late September when Monaghan will front as chairman for the first time.

“It’s no secret that we have been running into headwinds affecting earnings but we won’t know the final numbers until we close our books off.

“To provide balance it has been good to forecast a strong milk price ($7/kg), the third in a row.

“I have had messages of support from farmers all over the country and I know I have their backing to lead the board and govern the co-operative through the challenges we face.

“Other messages of support have come from industry stakeholders and international contacts and it is very

Levy going up A LEVY increase is looming for deer farmers, processors and exporters as the industry looks at helping farmers with their environmental obligations.

Deer Industry New Zealand chairman Ian Walker has flagged the need for an increase to build on what has been learnt from the Passion2Profit programme. More funding will also be needed to help farmers with water quality issues and their obligations under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

The increase will be on the agenda of the DINZ board meeting later this month. Managers are preparing draft budgets and once they have been considered by the board they will be used as the basis for consultation with representatives of levy payers, including the NZ Deer Farmers’ Association.

Sweet deal APICULTURE New Zealand has launched a new youth scholarship in beekeeping to encourage youngsters into careers in the industry with training that supports best practice beekeeping.

The Ron Mossop Youth Scholarship in Beekeeping is sponsored by Mossop’s Honey in Tauranga. Mossop was an industry pioneer, starting his family business in the 1940s. The Scholarship includes $2000 for a year towards an agreed training programme, a one-year ApiNZ membership and attendance at the Apiculture NZ national conference.

STOP IT: Fonterra chairman John Monaghan wants to stop competitors getting subsidised milk from the co-op.

energising to receive those.”

Monaghan agreed with Shareholders’ Council chairman Duncan Coull that prior experience as the council chairman was a “coincidence rather than continuity” for becoming the board chairman.

Nonetheless, the longer pathway to the top took off some of the rough edges and he can see the roles of the two chairmen are quite different.

“I am now in my 10th year as a director after a similar time in representation and have developed a deep understanding of the co-op so that is what I bring to the chair.”

He was a councillor at the formation of Fonterra, having come from Kiwi Co-operative Dairies, and was the inaugural chairman of the Fonterra governance programme.

The Monaghans have very good contract milkers on their Wairarapa dairy farm and working for their equity partnership in Otago, enabling

him to take the full-time chairmanship.

Trading Among Farmers had worked exactly as designed and been stress tested through good payouts and bad.

This is a natural juncture to reflect, breathe some fresh air into Fonterra.

John Monaghan Fonterra

“Right now we are not having discussions about capital structure but we are discussing flexibility for our shareholders because any co-op must keep adapting and evolving.”

He refused to make any comment about the low share price, which lost about 60c when the earnings guidance

SHEEP JETTER Sheep dipping… made easier!

was revised downwards at the end of May. The independent report on shareholder returns since 2001 commissioned by the council and due out shortly would be welcomed for its “transparency”.

Monaghan said the decision by former chairman John Wilson and family for him to resign the chairmanship and focus on his health was definitely the right one.

Wilson had made an extraordinary effort on behalf of Fonterra over more than 20 years and that will be recognised at the annual meeting in November.

It will be held at the Lichfield plant in south Waikato, an appropriate location for Wilson’s tribute given that he comes from Te Awamutu.

“We have been contacted by hundreds of dairy farmers wishing John well and thanking him for his contribution to the co-operative,” Monaghan said.

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

7

Seeds sale a ‘good, clean deal’ Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz DLF Seeds’ purchase of PGG Wrightson’s seeds and grain business for $421 million is at a big premium to its book value of $285m, PGW deputy chairman Trevor Burt says.

“This is a really good offer, a really good price.

“It’s also a good, clean deal and that is the key thing we were after,” he said.

Denmark-based DLF will pay off the unit’s $18m of debt.

The price compares with PGW’s market capitalisation of $483m on the NZX before the sale was announced.

The sale process was pretty well contested, Burt said.

“We were prudent with the book value so there’s no trouble there. They value the company and the opportunity it gives them.”

The sale,which will see PGW selling its interests in South America and Australia, is subject to several conditions, notably Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval.

That process alone can take many months and the PGW seeds business owns sensitive farmland under the relevant legislation.

PGW is majority-owned by Chinese group Agria with just over 50% of the shares so the sale involves a transfer from one overseas entity to another.

Burt said that does not point to an easy path for the application and the OIO works on a caseby-case basis. In a research report, sharebrokers Forsyth Barr suggested the move from one offshore owner to another might not be a major obstacle.

The transaction at a premium valuation is favourable for PGW shareholders.

The shares rose to 69c from 64c after the deal was reported to the NZX.

Burt expects PGW shareholders to vote on the sale proposal around the time of the annual meeting in October and is confident of support there. All going well, the deal could be settled in December.

Shareholders are in line for a significant cash return if the deal proceeds.

Subject to the outcomes of the continuing strategic review on the group’s future, directors said there is potential for a non-taxable distribution of up to $292m to shareholders. That would be about 39c a share.

This is a really good offer, a really good price.

Trevor Burt PGG Wrightson The payout is not a commitment but is a logical outcome, Burt said.

Agria, which took control of PGW in 2010-2011 when no other major investor was interested, would receive just over $146m.

Ngai Tahu Capital, represented

by Burt on the PGW board, has an interest in some of the Agria shares.

All options are open for the remaining businesses in the group and he isn’t prejudging the outcome. If they are kept, they will make up a large-scale business with market-leading retail and livestock/wool agency activities.

“What would be left would be a good company with good prospects and good money behind it. Farmers wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

PGW and DLF have also agreed a sole-distribution agreement giving PGW access to seed products to supply to clients.

“It would be business as usual,” Burt said.

PGW seeds is the biggest subsidiary of PGW by assets and earnings, with June 2017 annual operating earnings (Ebitda) of $37.4m on $312.6m of sales, for an operating margin of nearly 12%.

The total price being paid (including the debt repayment) of $439m is about 12 times that Ebitda figure though the price would have been based on the June 2018 earnings due to be released tomorrow and forward projections.

The price multiple might be slightly different.

When the deal is settled the group will have a net cash balance of about $270m after debt repayment. If the capital return to shareholders is $292m, as suggested, there will be a net interest-bearing debt of about $20m based on June 2018 proforma accounts.

Accountancy group Korda Mentha will prepare an independent report for shareholders ahead of their vote.

Approval is also required from the Commerce Commission, regulatory authorities in Australia and South America, PGW’s seeds joint venture partners and its bankers.

DLF chief executive Truels Damsgaard said the deal is an important transaction for his group, which has long viewed PGW seeds as a strategic and complementary business to its own operations. PGW is the leading temperate forage seed developer in the southern hemisphere, a place that DLF claims in the northern hemisphere. It already has a seed development business in Canterbury.

Acquiring PGW seeds is an opportunity to provide a strong global seeds offering for customers, he said.

CASHBACK: PGG Wrightson directors are suggesting a return of $292 of capital to shareholders as a result of selling its seeds business, deputy chairman Trevor Burt says.

Farmers are watching Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz FEDERATED Farmers arable section chairwoman Karen Williams hopes the expanded DLF Seeds business will continue the PGW strategy of contracting New Zealand farmers to grow seeds for it on a significant scale.

Federated Farmers will have a watching brief over the Danish group’s acquisition but is pleased PGW found a good buyer and is keen for the good relationship with arable farmers to continue, along with the

agronomy advice services.

“They’ve been a really trusted and valued brand in NZ and we hope DLF keeps those high standards going.

“As growers, we are always looking for something else to grow and with the resources being brought in there might be more opportunities.”

Williams said there have been some recent mergers among big global seeds groups and farmers in many countries hope they will have continuing access to quality seeds at affordable prices.

“Farmers will be watching to see how that all plays out.”

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Government deters water buyers Annette Scott annettescott@globalhq.co.nz UNCERTAINTY around Government policy has knocked the confidence of Hurunui Water shareholders and affected the uptake of water rights shares, North Canterbury Federated Farmers president Cameron Henderson says.

But despite falling short on its water rights share offer the project will go ahead, Hurunui Water Project chief executive Chris Pile said.

The vital community and economic need for an environmentally sustainable water supply is behind the commitment to continue.

After a meeting with share applicants in North Canterbury last week the irrigation company’s board and management confirmed they will continue to develop the scheme despite having a few more hurdles to jump, Pile said.

It received applications for 5200 of the water rights shares on offer.

Shareholders had earlier indicated demand to irrigate up to 17,500 hectares and on that basis a scheme was designed with construction partner, the Rooney Group.

The scheme was to include 3500ha of future capacity to be funded by Crown Irrigation Investments.

The Labour-led coalition Government has since pulled the plug on the investment scheme, leaving the project and several other Canterbury water schemes high and dry.

While the water rights share is below the threshold necessary to build the current concept design infrastructure at an affordable cost it demonstrates the understanding of those who’ve chosen to invest of the real need for a reliable, sustainable water supply, Pile said.

“Not only is this a significant

TAKE THAT: Shortsighted politicians are, like weather and misguided regulations, just another hazard for farmers to overcome, Federated Farmers North Canterbury president Cameron Henderson says.

commitment to invest in their own businesses but also the desire to future-proof and protect the region against droughts.

“It is wrong to think this is only about agribusiness. Water is the lifeblood of our community and the frequency and severity of droughts in our region are only likely to increase.”

Australia is suffering through a six-year drought and the impacts of climate change are factors in the high temperature and dry winds fanning the devastating North American forest fires.

“This is the important bigger picture and such conditions impact harshly not only on agricultural productivity and alternative land uses but the stability and sustainability of our communities,” Pile said.

The Hurunui scheme is

designed to use on-plains storage, not take low-flow river water, and ensure farmers manage their water supply efficiently and sustainably through the latest monitoring technology.

This is a case of short-sighted politicians being just another hazard for farmers.

Cameron Henderson Federated Farmers “The scheme must and will continue,” Pile said.

Federated Farmers welcomed the news farmer shareholders will press on.

“This is a case of short-sighted politicians being just another hazard for farmers to overcome, like the weather and misguided regulations,” Henderson said.

North Canterbury has been punished severely by droughts, most recently from 2014-2017.

The project is about storing water captured when the Hurunui River is in high flow and using it with close attention to environmental impacts.

“Most of the farmers backing the scheme are traditional sheep and beef farmers who are keen to partially irrigate their properties so they can look after the welfare of their livestock and try and maintain their livelihoods through prolonged periods of no rainfall.

“But don’t make the mistake of thinking the Hurunui project is

only about farmers,” he said.

“Water storage is also a vital backstop for ensuring the viability of the rural communities in the district – the schools, the retailers and the many businesses that rely on a viable agricultural sector.”

“General uncertainty around new Government policy has knocked the confidence of the Hurunui shareholders and the take-up of subsequent water right shares has been muted,” Henderson said.

“That’s the short-term problem we have to work on because the long-term need is thoroughly established.

“Not to act now risks the entire district becoming less and less viable into the future, especially as the predicted patterns of climate change start to bite.”

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10 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Strong returns for Ravensdown Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz RAVENSDOWN has reported strong earnings but says its work helping farmers reduce their environmental impact is as important.

The fertiliser co-operative said good progress is being made in aerial and on-farm mapping programmes ensuring the most efficient application activities with thousands of touch-points between its environment consultants and nutrient management advisers and farmers.

The group is selling an effluent treatment system that could reduce total freshwater use by 42 billion litres if every dairy farm installed it.

Chairman John Henderson and chief executive Greg Campbell said Ravensdown will not maximise profit at the expense of the natural environment.

Returns for shareholderfarmers include expertise and technology that helps them reduce environmental impact and optimise the value from their land, Henderson said.

Ravensdown reported a profit before rebate and tax of $63 million for the year-ended May 31, up from $51m a year earlier.

Shareholders will receive a total rebate of $47 a tonne for fertiliser bought during the year. An interim rebate payment of $17.50/t was paid out on June 8 and the balance

Farmers are nervous about meeting the requirements and they know regulators are putting deadlines in place.

Greg Campbell Ravensdown

PROMISE: Ravensdown chief executive Greg Campbell and his chairman John Henderson say the co-op won’t put profit ahead of the environment.

of $29.50/t will be paid by the end of August.

The profit after rebate, tax and about $800,000 in costs on discontinued activities was $7m.

The bottom line profit a year earlier was below $1m and the business also had a sharp rise in operating cashflows, up to $98m from $60m.

Part of that was caused by

weather-related delays to fertiliser spreading late in the previous year, which pushed payments into the latest period.

Sales were also higher with volumes up 9% and revenue by 8% to $678m from $627m previously.

Ravensdown is getting business from new customers and sheep farmers especially are benefiting from very high lamb prices and can put more fertiliser into their soils after a few years of lower applications, Campbell said.

That catch-up trend still has a way to go.

Strong sales growth was achieved for urea product N-Protect. Its coating delivers more nitrogen to plants and less is lost in emissions.

Campbell hopes the group’s former flagship

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fertiliser Eco-N, taken from the market a few years ago over environmental concerns, might be re-introduced after work with government agencies.

The farm sector knows it is under the watchful eyes of regulators and communities and very good progress is being made on farm practices and nutrient compliance, he said.

“Farmers are nervous about meeting the requirements and they know regulators are putting deadlines in place. We go in to bat for them and thousands are engaged with us on it.”

During the year, the group spent $34m on infrastructure (down from $42m a year earlier), some of it on stores and loaders.

That will continue though bigger investments, such as the highprecision plants at Christchurch and New Plymouth.

The new technology spend was $9m, up from $5m, and research and development spend was $5m, up from $4m. Technology spend included the HawkEye on-farm mapping software, which was getting very good sales and feedback in dairying, with plans to extend into the wider farm sector.

Ravensdown’s PGP project investigating improved aerialspreading precision is at the threequarter mark of its seven-year life and so far the hill country farms using the service had an average of 14% of land able to be excluded from application because of environment and effectiveness factors.

Henderson said the directors’ focus over the last four years was to deliver returns for shareholders and build-up the value of the company along the way.

In the last three years a larger customer buying 100 tonnes of fertiliser a year had received total rebates of $13,300 and at the same time the equity-value of the Ravensdown business had increased by $50m to $429m.

That is an equity ratio of 78% of total assets before the rebate payment and 71% after the rebate payment.

Fully-shared customers will receive the rebate in cash; some of the rebate to partly-shared customers will be paid in new shares.

T&G Global profit up Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz AN EARLIER and stronger pipfruit export season helped T&G Global increase half-year operating earnings.

The earlier harvest meant fruit could more quickly be moved into the market than it was the previous year, the company told the NZX. That meant it could also take advantage of European apple shortages because of frosts in the northern hemisphere growing season.

Though the gains were partly offset by difficulties in the North American market, the pipfruit division increased revenues for the six months ended June 30 to $329 million from $269m at the same time

a year earlier with operating profit $1.3m higher at $13.1m.

A lack of export quality fruit affected sales in North America. Lower fruit sizes caused lower prices and reduced revenues.

T&G Global’s New Zealand produce division had lower earnings because of lower production of high-value sweet tomato varieties and the loss of a blueberry harvest in Kerikeri because of high rainfall.

The group also has an international produce division sourcing fruit from other countries. Grape, mango and cherry sales from South America contributed to higher revenues and there was improvement in grape and asparagus exports from

Australia, the company said.

Pacific Island markets were also stronger, leading to higher operating earnings.

Total group revenue increased to $581.7m from $511.2m and the operating profit was $3m higher at $10.5m.

However, a lower aftertax profit of $3.3m for the six months was reported, as the previous period result of $12.7m included a number of one-off gains.

During the half-year T&G Global sold several non-core assets, including its ENZAFoods business to Cedenco Foods NZ and its Kerikeri-based kiwifruit orchards and post-harvest assets to another NZX-listed company, Seeka.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

11

Farmer loses 65 cows to thieves Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz A WEST Otago dairy farm where thieves stole 65 mixed-aged, in-calf cows has 30 road-fronting gates so Ivan Roulston is at a loss how to protect his herd.

He believes the theft occurred on May 30 or 31 when dry cows had been split from those in-calf.

Only in-calf cows were stolen.

However, the loss wasn’t apparent until early June when he returned from a family holiday and, while feeding out, realised the herd was smaller than it should have been.

Roulston, who milks up to 640 cows on 386ha, said an audit revealed he was 65 short.

The theft coincided with the end of season and farmers shifting properties and cows being trucked to winter grazing so it was not unusual to see cows on the move.

Police had been notified but he said there wasn’t any sign of where the stolen stock had been loaded onto trucks or cows herded from paddocks onto a road.

He is taking the loss on the chin, having replaced the stolen cattle and is resigned to the likelihood of never seeing the cows again.

The stolen stock could be in the North Island or turned into grinding beef by now, he said.

“There’s not a lot I can do about it unless someone has seen something or knows someone who has acquired them.”

His farm is self-contained but with 30 gates opening onto roads it is not practical to padlock every gate.

It was the second sizeable theft of dairy cows in recent years, following the loss of 500 cows from an Ashburton farm in 2016.

The stock and perpetrators have never been found or charged but police have said the file remains open in the hope they uncover new leads.

Rural community leaders have in recent months criticised police for failing to make much headway in solving rural crime but in one week four people were arrested for high profile crimes.

Earlier this month Wairarapa police arrested a man accused of poaching and a few days later three Tauranga locals were arrested for multiple avocado thefts in the western Bay of Plenty.

A 45-year-old Masterton man was arrested after witnesses saw a man firing a weapon from a car as it travelled up and down White Rock Rd in southern Wairarapa.

Acting Senior Sergeant Jennifer Hansen said it is an area previously targeted by poachers and she praised the quick action of witnesses.

“This time the caller also attained a registration, which is great and certainly made things easier for us.”

A subsequent search of a Masterton property found more hunting equipment, including ammunition.

The man faces charges of possessing a firearm without a licence, poaching and possession of cannabis.

Tauranga police have arrested three people for the theft and receiving of stolen avocados following incidents over several months in Te Puke, Welcome Bay, Bethlehem, Te Puna and Katikati.

Police said the arrests followed quick action and assistance from victims and witnesses who reported suspicious activity.

The avocados were believed to have been onsold by the receiver and police said people buying avocados should ensure they know the source of the fruit and keep records of their purchases.

A 23-year-old man and 27-year-old woman face burglary charges and a 63-year-old man charges of receiving stolen property.

Hawke’s Bay businesses have been praised for taking a proactive approach to crime prevention by

investing in new signs warning potential offenders they are being watched.

The businesses have taken a stand against burglaries, thefts, poaching, drug cultivation and boy racers affecting Hastings’ rural areas.

Having decided to replace some ageing Neighbourhood Support Group signs, local businesses were approached to become part of the initiative to help prevent crime in rural areas.

GONE: Thieves stole 65 mixed-age, in-calf cows from Ivan Roulston’s Otago farm.

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News

12 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Ewe hoggets limit sheep decline Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz A BIG increase in ewe hoggets on Marlborough-Canterbury farms has stemmed the decline in overall sheep numbers.

The regional number lifted 10% to an estimated 2.34 million hoggets on June 30, a mix of animals kept by farmers to replace the many ewes sold for their high mutton value as well as trade lambs bought in early summer from drier regions further south for fattening and subsequent sale, a Beef + Lamb New Zealand analysis shows.

The national cull of ewes to supply the buoyant mutton export market means overall sheep numbers are down 0.8% to 27.31m.

That is because North Island numbers are down 2% to 13.34m, largely through the fall in breeding ewe numbers to an estimated 8.33m from 8.64m a year earlier.

That could not be offset by a 1% rise in hogget numbers to 4.7m.

Total South Island numbers rose marginally to 13.96m from 13.91m. The 4.2% lift in hogget numbers to 4.4m from 4.22m more than offset the fall in the breeding ewe tally to 9.04m from 9.11m a year earlier.

DOWN: Lamb numbers this year are expected to be down 3.8% on last year’s record.

The national hogget tally was 9.1m, a 2.5% gain.

The results are based on a survey of 500 sheep and beef farmers by B+LNZ Economic Service managers at various times of the year. Beef numbers rose from a year earlier. They were up 1.9% to 3.68m head.

The Canterbury-Marlborough area was again the main contributor as breeders kept younger cattle.

Total North Island numbers slipped marginally to 2.57m head though the B+LNZ report noted a move by some older farmers, especially in the lower North Island, away from labourintensive sheep farming to running more cattle.

Economic Service chief executive Andrew Burtt said ewes were in good condition at mating and going into winter because of good feed supply.

However, farmer confidence in strong lambing numbers was not supported by early pregnancy scanning of ewes, showing mixed results in the northern North Island, east coast North Island and MarlboroughCanterbury.

The lamb crop is expected to be down 3.8% to 22.8m, including a 7% fall in the North Island after a record lambing percentage last season.

The reduced breeding ewe numbers, down 380,000 to 17.37m, will be partly offset by more lambs from hoggets.

In the important east coast area, the number of breeding ewes fell 3.5% to 4.03m head though there was increased ewe hogget retention, Burtt said.

Total sheep numbers fell in all regions, except MarlboroughCanterbury, where numbers lifted 2.8% to 5.93m.

Hogget numbers lifted strongly in the northern North Island, by 4.7% to 1.05m, as strong schedule prices encouraged farmers to buy trade stock.

Otago and Southland, together the biggest sheep farming area, had a 1% fall in breeding ewe numbers to 5.66m, mainly from the intensive finishing country.

Hogget numbers fell 2% to 2.06m,

with a steady number of ewe hoggets retained in Otago but a decline in Southland.

Burtt said the proportion of ewe hoggets mated increased in both regions, which should partly offset the decline in breeding ewe numbers.

In the largest beef farming area, the northern North Island, covering Northland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, there was a marginal fall in numbers to 1.22m, with fewer breeding cows but more trade cattle being run on abundant feed on easier hill country. Taranaki-Manawatu numbers fell 5% to 430,000, with breeding cows steady but lower weaner and trade stock numbers.

South Island beef cattle numbers jumped 7.4% to 1.12m, with Marlborough-Canterbury up nearly 10% at 713,000.

As well as younger cattle being kept by breeders, finishers bought good numbers of dairy-beef weaners.

Beef cattle numbers rose 3.5% to 400,000 in Otago and Southland, with more breeding cows and trading stock.

B+LNZ expects calving percentages to be similar or up slightly on last year in most regions.

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Pamu, Forest and Bird form a team PAMU, formerly known as Landcorp, is not cosying up to farm critics but including them in corporate governance to benefit the wider farming sector.

Conservation group Forest and Bird and Pamu have agreed to work together to promote best environmental practice in New Zealand’s farming sector.

That follows the inclusion of fresh water ecologist and high-profile farming critic Mike Joy in a reference group to advise the state-owned enterprise on environmental stewardship.

Chief executive Steven Carden said diverse ideas and views provided by such groups and individuals are part of a bigger project to help shape Pamu’s approach to and impact on the environment.

“The worst thing for farming is to go in to a huddle and only talk to themselves or people that tell you what you want to hear.”

Forest and Bird wants to be proactive in its dealings with agriculture and to showcase the good environmental practice occurring in the industry, not just by Pamu.

Carden said Pamu plans to plant trees in areas marginal for livestock and will use Forest and Bird’s expertise to ensure the species used will enhance biodiversity.

The conservation group will also contribute to projects to enhance water quality and wetlands.

Carden said involvement of farm critics in decisions on how to improve the environment shows them solutions are often complicated and that no one has all the answers.

Joy continues to champion water quality but Carden said in his role with Pamu he is also seeing farmers and the wider farming sector are acting to improve water quality.

They want to be involved developing solutions instead of pointing the finger.

“I think it is extremely positive.

“Rather than environmentalists fighting farming and farming resisting environmentalists, the farming sector and environmentalists are working collaboratively on solutions.”

Under Carden Pamu has been willing to seek input from those outside the farming sector and the agreement with Forest and Bird is a continuation of work to enhance the environmental work already under way.

“We recognise there is more we need to do as we face challenges like climate change and a fundamental rethink of the agricultural sector’s relationship with the natural capital of NZ.” Two years ago Pamu formed the independent Environmental Reference Group to guide Landcorp’s environmental focus and take a leading role in implementing sustainable agricultural strategies that put environmental best practice first across all of Landcorp’s operations.

The six members were described as some of the country’s leading primary sector experts.

It has been chaired by Nelson-based environmental strategy expert Guy Salmon and included sustainable farming adviser and veterinarian Alison Dewes, Joy, agricultural economist and Maori agribusiness consultant Dr Tanira Kingi, primary sector marketing expert Dave Maslen and inventor and entrepreneur Angus Robson.

In August 2016 Pamu began phasing out the use of palm kernel with the transition to alternative feed supplements to be completed by June last year.

When announcing the move Carden said growing grass and producing pasture-fed animals is a point

Have your say on this issue: farmersweekly.co.nz

SILENCE ISN’T GOLDEN: The worst thing for farmers to do is go into a huddle and ignore the critics, Pamu chief executive Steven Carden says.

of difference for NZ, creating world-wide interest.

“Pamu wants our partners and customers to know they can trust that we farm sustainably and care for the environment.

“We need to anticipate shifting consumer expectations on how their food is produced and change how we farm accordingly.”

Last January Dewes joined the company as head of environment with responsibility for driving sustainable environmental management.

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News

14 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Raising triplets indoors works Joanna Grigg tempello@xtra.co.nz

SUCCESSFUL: Three brains of orphan lamb rearing and indoor triplet lambing are, from left, Lynley Wyeth, Wairarapa, Richard Dawkins, The Pyramid, Marlborough, and Ellie Cranswick, the project manager of the Wyeths’ orphan lamb system. All have been part of the Innovation Farm Programme to put new science to the test.

IT’S raining outside, again, but it’s not worrying these new lambs.

All 250 of Richard Dawkins’ triplet-bearing ewes get seven days or so indoors to adjust to supplementary feed, birth their lambs, bond and feed.

Then it’s out to the real world, albeit a nearby paddock with adlib clover and a watchful eye for that fading third lamb.

Speaking to 80 farmers at the well-attended Marlborough Farming for Profit day Dawkins explained how lambing triplets indoors has boosted triplet lamb survival from 200% to 243% and had positive flow-on benefits for the rest of the 645 hectare down and hill-country farm, The Pyramid.

“Our lamb mortality average over the whole flock, before indoor lambing triplets, was 24% but it’s dropped to 15% in 2017.

“It’s not for everyone but we are doing it again for a second year.

“It suits us as our ewes were intensively managed already and used to people, we had a covered shed with morning sunlight and

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roller doors for ventilation.

“And we have a family team willing to do long hours over lambing.”

The Dawkins partnership of Richard, Chris and Julia used support from the Innovation Farm Programme to trial indoor lambing.

Dawkins acknowledged the benefits of using ram harnesses at tupping for accurate lambing dates plus precise pregnancy scanning and autopsy information. Chris and Richard Dawkins’ datacollection discipline gave farmers a fascinating insight into multiple lambing pitfalls and success.

In the record-breaking year of 2016 ewes scanned 217% but losses saw the lambing percentage end up at 156%.

The Dawkins reacted by lowering tupping weight by 10kg the following year to try to cut triplet conceptions. Then they stepped up triplet management.

The lamb death rate in the 1400 Longdown ewes dropped by 38% or by nine percentage points to 15% of total. Triplet-bearing ewe deaths were typically 10% but have dropped to 3.8%.

“Taking triplets indoors has meant Dad’s outdoor lambing beat of the twins and singles is more effective too,” Dawkins said.

“We’ve turned triplet ewes from a liability to an opportunity.”

It stacks up.

In year one costs were $86/ triplet ewe, totalling $11,000 over 130 ewes with $7000 of it on labour. The Dawkins sold 316 lambs out of a potential 390 and made a $19,000 profit. The average lamb weaning liveweight for triplet lambs kept on the ewe was 30kg. Orphan lambs needed more labour and profit was less.

Year two has been about refining the system. Four weeks of supplements have dropped to one week with the ewes being especially quick to eat the offered supplements if they could see other ewes already eating it, he said.

“Return triplets had a good memory too.”

Ewes are fed peas instead of speciality nuts alongside lucerne hay as it’s 30% cheaper. Straw bedding is not changed daily, just new straw laid on top.

“A dry, ventilated shed is key.”

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farm on the West Coast means a reliable supply of cow milk at a quarter of the cost of milk powder.

Identifying starving triplets a week after lambing has been an important part of reducing deaths with 41% of the orphan lambs from that scenario. Growth rates pre-wean were 265 grams/ head/day for orphans. Dawkins describes that as good for cows’ milk.

He assisted a third of the births though some might have resolved without help he admits.

Wairarapa farmer Lynley Wyeth said the Dawkins’ results from their orphan system confirm their figures for Spring Valley Farm orphan lambs.

We’ve turned triplet ewes from a liability to an opportunity.

Richard Dawkins The Pyramid Last season they rescued 600 lambs and raised them as orphans to increase lamb survival rates.

Both farmers said they take orphan rearing on for dual reasons of animal welfare and to make the most of ewe fecundity.

“If you owned a dairy you wouldn’t be happy if 25% of your profit walked out the door,” Wyeth said.

Her tips for success include using whey milk over whole milk, a strict adherence to cleanliness and measuring the nutritional value of any feed inputs.

Ellie Cranswick helped manage the Wyeth’s operation and said Dawkins has the right approach of continual adaption of his system.

She emphasised the importance of timely feeding because ewes are on a metabolic knife edge.

“Feed the right amount and don’t be a few hours late.”

Simon Glennie of Abacus Bio encouraged more farmers to join the Innovation Farm Programme like the Dawkins and Wyeths had.

“It is an opportunity for highachieving famers to connect with the best research and support people, in an area of interest that has potential to offer significant financial impacts for farmers.”

BONDING: Time in a small pen indoors is a vital step in the Dawkins’ triplet lambing process.

News

farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Decisions made.

For tomorrow.

15

MEATY: Beltex purebred lambs processed by Silver Fern Farms.

Beltex lambs produce very meaty carcases THE first of the New Zealandbred Beltex lambs have been processed and the results have not disappointed.

While they were not big numbers nor the best that went to Silver Fern Farms for processing the results have Beltex NZ “just excited enough”, farmer Blair Gallagher said.

“Having had the sale we sold the best so these were just the cull ram lambs and not the best by any means but just the same we got some very encouraging results.”

Gallagher is raising the sheep on his Rangiatea sheep and beef property near Ashburton in partnership with fellow Beltex NZ directors, sheep genetics scientist Jock Allison and farm consultant John Tavendale.

The first crop of lambs was born on Rangiatea last year following the embryo transfer of British genetics.

Beltex rams were offered for the first time in NZ at a sale on the property in March.

“What we are seeing for ourselves and what we are now hearing from buyers right across the country, the breed is going to indeed be very exciting for the sheep industry here.

“The kill sheets from these first lambs processed, despite being culls, have been incredibly pleasing in meat to bone and yield to live weight from dead weight,” Gallagher said.

Data available from the Scottish Rural College at Edinburgh had provided the Beltex NZ team with an insight into the expected performance

of the breed compared with other terminal sire breeds in Britain.

The Beltex had a much higher killing out percentage (7-11%) than other terminal sire breeds and in comparison the ratio of eye muscle area to liveweight was 12-25% higher for Beltex.

More recent data showed the percentage of meat in the carcase was about 72%, 6% higher than British Texels and 12-14% higher than other terminals.

The NZ lambs killed out from a range of 49kg liveweight to 23.4kg meat weight at 81.2% meat, down to 41kg liveweight at 17.9kg meat weight and 79.3% meat.

Allison said the processed lambs gave very high-yielding lean meat.

“The highlight really for us is the much improved meat yield but also what can be done in cutting the carcases into higher value products,” Allison said.

The first lambs in significant numbers will be 25% Beltex.

“But based on the information we have there should be 2.5% more meat in the carcase and a noticeably better shape – for 50% Beltex just double the figures.

“With the multiplication of significant numbers for use in the industry there will be many crosses, such as Texel-Beltex, (the new muscly Texel), the Beltex-Suffolk and Perendale – the Beltex place being the improvement in carcase quality and meat yield.

“In fact I think that the NZ Texel in the future will be an interbred Texel-Beltex that will vastly improve the present Texel.”

The unknown is the growth rates of the Beltex crosses given in Britain there is very little or no selection for productive criteria.

“Early days yet for us in NZ, tremendous potential but a lot of work to do,” Allison said.

The second Beltex NZ lambing is under way at Rangiatea where Gallagher is lambing to five different programmes this year.

“We have three embryo transplant programmes, artificial insemination with Poll Dorset and Suffolk ewes and the best of the purebred Beltex rams have been mated over the Perendale, Poll Dorset and Suffolk.

“So, we are looking forward to some very encouraging results going forward following the positive signals from our first year.”

The first round of embryos was sourced from five British studs with embryos and semen this year from three different studs.

“We now have the genetic base coming from eight unrelated studs and we have specifically selected the genetics we want and we can breed for a few years now without bringing in more genetics.

“In effect, what we are doing is increasing the amount of product we produce just through genetics and that is really exciting for the future.”

By the end of stage two this year investment in the Beltex breeding programme will reach $1 million.

“It’s been an exciting journey this far and we are confident the Beltex has the attributes to be a game-changer for the NZ sheep industry,” Gallagher said.

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Annette Scott annettescott@globalhq.co.nz

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16 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Bulls bred for commercial farmers Stephen Bell stephen.bell@globalhq.co.nz BEEF farmers John and Johnnie McFadzean are responding to demand and holding an auction of affordable, quality bulls as a result of the breeding programme for their commercial beef operation.

The bulls are the result of a successful commerical breeding operation.

John McFadzean has been breeding stock in Wairarapa for over 40 years at inland Glenbrae Station and on the coastal Glenburn Station. The properties run 11,000 ewes, 1000 cows and supporting stock.

He built his herd up from scratch to have superieor growth rates and high yields, to the point there is strong demand for his cattle, most notably weaners.

McFadzean weaners have repeatedly achieved top prices not only at Masterton sales but across the country.

Forty yeares ago John looked at cattle performance data from Clay University in America where different breeds were compared over a range of attributes.

The two top-performing breeds were Simmental and Angus.

Over the years while building up the 1000 cow herd John bought cows of various crosses and mated them all with high-performance bulls.

No crosses compared with the Simmental-Angus as calf produceers or maternally in the herd, he found.

“Cows have been farmed on hill country, bred and culled on productivity not pedigree.

“Over 40 years we have invested heavily in top sire bulls, which has meant we are often competing with stud breeders to ensure we get the bulls we are looking for.”

Up to $20,000 has been paid for individual bulls.

Strict criteria have been followed.

Sire bulls must have strong

JUST THE JOB: John and Johnnie McFadzean describe the affordable bulls they are offering as hybrids specially developed for commercial beef production. constitution and muscle.

Confirmation is paramount with emphasis on eye muscle area, intramuscular fat and correctly shaped rear ends. All bulls must also have very good EBV figures.

“Anyone can buy a bull on figures alone, however, to ensure the bulls do not fail on hill country you cannot compromise on confirmation and constitution,” McFadzean said.

“It is all about getting a wellbalanced bull with good data, easier said than done.”

Over the last 10 years or so the McFadzeans have been repeatedly asked by other farmers to put aside bull calves so they can introduce the McFadzean genetics into their herds.

Large-scale ram breeder Derek Daniel has been buying McFadzean bulls for several years with success. Repeat buyers take his Wairere calves each year.

“We are doing what a number of

now successful Wairarapa sheep breeders, including Derek, did 50 years ago, screening in ewes from their commercial flocks.”

DNA makes that easiere these days.

It is all about getting a well-balanced bull with good data, easier said than done.

John McFadzean Breeder The 30 bulls to be sold in September are DNA tested and identified.

“I describe the bulls as hybrid rather than crossbred or composite,” McFadzean said.

“They will appeal to farmers who want to lift the performancve of their herd in one cross without compromising the do-ability of their cows.

The sale bulls are a mix of three-quarters Angus and quarter Simmental and others are threequarter Simmental and quarter Angus.

“On harder or drier conditions a three-quarter Angus and quarter Simmental bull will have a positive effect on calf size, milk production and muscling without being detrimental to the cow’s constitution.

“On easier land three-quarter Simmental, quarter Angus bulls will have a substantial effect on calf size, gowth and muscling but if replacements are kept the cows will be a little bigger and heavier.

“Recently a visiting Canadian Angus breeder told us that Angus cattle with varying degrees of Simmental in them are fetching

premiums across Canada.”

The McFadzean family have decided to call their bulls McFadzean Meatmakers.

“More prime meat is what we have been breeding for.”

The 30 elite McFadzean Meatmaker bulls have been selected from a large herd on performance and shape. Selection is based on sound commercial principles.

“We expect the bulls to be very moderately priced,” McFadzean said.

PGG Wrightson agent Steve Olds believes the McFadzean herd is one of the best in New Zealand and said the bulls will appeal to farmers with limited budgets who want to lift the performance of their cow herds with one cross of McFadzean Meatmaker bulls instead of working away at it with average bulls for 20 years using traditional breeds.

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farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Decisions made.

For tomorrow.

17

TOEHOLD: The partnership will let Fonterra establish a presence in India, its global consumer and food service chief operating officer Lukas Paravicini says.

Fonterra in Indian retail goods push to settle in the partnership infrastructure, learn the market and prioritise geographies,” Paravicini said.

The Indian dairy industry is now transforming itself.

“This has resulted in a big shift away from more traditional, locally-based dairy businesses with limited product and brand differentiation to a new era where more value-added and innovative dairy products are in high demand across the country.”

Consumption of milk and other dairy products in India are increasing and will continue to receive strong demand.

Kishore Biyani Future Group Fonterra’s Sri Lanka and Indian Subcontinent managing director Sunil Sethi said India is also witnessing the emergence of new fast-moving consumer goods organisations like Future Consumer, which has a deep understanding of the Indian consumer, the experience of working with international partners and a nationwide

supply chain and retail network.

“These dynamics have created an opportunity for this partnership where we will focus on leveraging our global dairy innovation, manufacturing and nutrition expertise,” Sethi said.

Future Group chief executive Kishore Biyani said the association with Fonterra comes at a time when the dairy industry in India is flourishing.

“Consumption of milk and other dairy products in India are increasing and will continue to receive strong demand. With Fonterra, Future Consumer will enhance its food and fast-moving consumer goods portfolio and will offer a variety of dairy products which are high in demand and consumed daily,” he said.

Driving the growth is the country’s young population where 70% of people are below 45 years. They are digital, live in urban areas, lead an active lifestyle, have more disposable income and want to consume higher-quality and highernutritional dairy products.

Future Consumer is part of the Future Group. It plans to launch 1100 stores this year.

Future Group is present in 26 of 31 Indian states with more than 2000 modern trade outlets and 5000 public distribution outlets and a nationwide coldchain and ambient distribution network.

• Predict pasture production and consumption • Slide to a future date or animate changes in pasture cover/growth over time HawkEye’s interactive feed wedge tool enables you to predict your future feed situation.

See more.

Go to hawkeye.farm or call 0800 73 73 73

RAV-HE16JUL-FW02

FONTERRA has formed a partnership with Future Consumer to get a foothold in the giant Indian market.

The joint venture with Future Consumer, one of India’s biggest consumer companies, will produce a range of consumer and food service dairy products to meet the growing demand for high-quality dairy nutrition there, Fonterra global consumer and food service chief operating officer Lukas Paravicini said.

“It will allow us to prepare the groundwork and make the most of our expertise as we enter the world’s largest and fastest growing dairy industry.

“Consumer demand for dairy in India over the next seven years is set to increase by 82 billion litres – seven times the forecasted growth for China.”

The venture, Fonterra Future Dairy Partners, will give the coop a presence in India.

“The partnership will be driven by growth through profitability.

“The initial stages of the partnership will focus on product development and marketing with the right capital investment made during this period.

“The first consumer products will be launched by the middle of 2019 using both locally sourced milk and dairy products from New Zealand.

“We will also use this time

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18 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Farmer feels fit from exercises This year I decided to prepare and it’s been great.

farmstrong.co.nz

DAIRY farmer Amber Lockley is feeling the benefits of preparing her body for the physically gruelling calving season that’s under way on the farm she and husband Des manage near Tokoroa.

Preparing for calving is particularly important for the 35-year-old because she has had serious back problems in the past.

Lockley had surgery seven years ago for sciatica – a condition where pressure on the sciatic nerve causes leg pain.

Amber Lockley Farmer

“They cut a piece of cartilage out and fixed the problem so I was feeling good,” she said.

However, in 2013 she fell into a milking pit, seriously injuring her back.

She had spinal fusion surgery to screw her vertebrae together.

“In the past I haven’t been physically prepared for calving.

“Every year I say I’ll prepare and I never do and I pay for it later on with injuries.

“But this year I decided to prepare and it’s been great. My back’s been feeling good.”

Lockley completed the six-week online conditioning and strengthening programme, Fit For Calving, in the lead-up to the calving season that started mid-July.

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The programme was created by Canterbury dairy farm contractor Nicole Jackson and personal trainer Alice Liljeback to reduce the number of injuries to female calf-rearers during the physically demanding calving season.

“My body is feeling really good. I’m more flexible and moving more easily and my body is recovering more quickly from any aches or pains.

“It’s easier to straddle the calves and pick up buckets because my body is stronger.

“I wish I’d started physically preparing for calving years ago because it’s made a huge difference.

“I know so many people who struggle to get fit in time for calving and then they pay for it later on.”

Her biggest physical challenge with calving is general tiredness. It’s also hard on your lower back and your legs get sore because you’re walking around in gumboots all day.”

She really liked how the exercises targeted the specific muscle groups used when calving.

“One set of exercises involved lifting buckets, which helped prepare my muscles for lifting feed and wrangling the calves. I felt prepared from my shoulders right down to my ankles, which can really suffer in gumboots when you’re on uneven ground.”

And she loved the convenience of the programme.

“Because it’s online I could do it whenever and wherever it suited and because it uses stuff from around the house and farm, like buckets or cans of food, you don’t have to buy any equipment.”

In addition to building up physical strength Lockley also felt good mentally after doing the exercises.

“I really enjoyed the whole thing and the girls in the videos were so bright and bubbly and it was so easy to follow.

“I looked forward to each video and felt so good afterwards.

“I’ll definitely be doing it next year,” she said. is the official media partner of Farmstrong

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READY: Amber Lockley prepared for calving this year by getting physically fit with execises designed specifically for women about to raise calves.

News

farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Decisions made.

More informed.

19

REALISTIC: MyFarm sales director Grant Payton says American-owned Freestyle Hops has seen the projections for returns of 15% from Tapawera Hop Garden and believes they are realistic.

Hop sydicate will boost sector 20% THE previously closed hop growing sector will expand considerably over the next two years as a MyFarm syndicate boost the area planted near Nelson by 20%.

Tapawera Hop Garden Partnership will begin in spring to plant 116 canopy hectares and contract Hop Revolution to develop and manage the properties and provide postharvest services.

MyFarm is offering 1764 units of $10,000 each with a minimum investment of $100,000.

It is forecasting annual returns of 15% from the 2023 financial year onwards.

The key targets include average mature yields across four varieties of 1705kg/ha and garden gate returns of $31.27/kg.

Hop Revolution said it can achieve that higher return by growing a more valuable mix of varieties and dealing directly with craft brewers rather than hop merchants.

New Zealand’s 23 mostly small-scale growers supply the co-operative NZ Hops and 80% of production is exported, though NZ grows less than 1% of global output.

The only grower operating independently of NZ Hops is Freestyle Hops, a United Statesowned company that bought an existing 61ha in 2017 and is establishing its own pelletisation plant.

MyFarm sales director Grant Payton said Freestyle has seen the Tapawera projections and believes they are realistic.

The NZ hop growing industry is about 600ha, having grown quickly over the past two years from 450ha, and makes export and domestic sales worth about $30 million a year from less than 1000 tonnes of dried hops.

The demand for our aroma

and dual-purpose hops is very high from craft brewers, whose beer barrel output has trebled in the US, for instance, over the past decade.

Along with Australian, NZ hops achieve the highest values in the US market – an average of US$18.78/kg for 239t in 2017.

European hops sell for $10-$12/ kg in the US. NZ hops have also attracted good prices in the United Kingdom and Australia, though a little lower than those from the US.

The demand for our aroma and dual-purpose hops is very high from craft brewers.

World production of hops is more than 100,000t annually, dominated by Germany with 40% market share.

Craft brewers use four to six times the hops required for traditional beers and NZ grows some of the most sought-after aroma hop varieties.

In MyFarm presentations to investors, newly recruited rural economist Con Williams spoke of common success themes among higher-value land uses.

Avocados, blueberries, apples and hops share themes such as best practices from orchard to customers, the application of new technologies and varieties, market-based payments reflecting the quality characteristics consumers want and some product uniqueness and intellectual property.

The horticultural crops offer returns of up to 20% while dairy, meat and wool are below the cost of capital, Williams said.

Other primary industries that

exhibit the success factors are seafoods, kiwifruit, pipfruit, the wine industry and forestry with impetus from the Government’s planting intentions and the zero-carbon legislation.

Hop Revolution was formed by plant scientist Susan Wheeler in partnership with the late Terry McCashin, the founder of Macs and Stoke breweries.

It wants to investigate hop growing in parts of the country outside Nelson and access the licensed hop varieties from Plant and Food Research.

Working with syndicates Hop Revolution wants to plant in Gisborne, Canterbury, Central Otago and Hawke’s Bay. Wheeler is now general manager of research and development and the independent chairman of Hop Revolution is John Loughlin, also chairman of Rockit Global, EastPack, the Meat Industry Association, PowerCo and TruTest Corporation.

The Tapawera Partnership will have a 20% stake in Hop Revolution, which will in turn take up a 10% stake in the hop garden.

Hop Revolution needs to build a pelletisation and cool storage facility, develop markets, begin plant breeding and meet working capital requirements.

For the hop garden the forecast revenue when fully productive is expected to be about $6m annually, less 40% working expenses and about $100,000 in syndicate expenses and MyFarm administration fees.

It will also be paid 5% of distributions.

MyFarm will charge an establishment fee of slightly less than $1m while equipment and machinery will cost $5.6m.

Hops need harvesting over a short period and the varieties have been selected partly to spread the maturity times.

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Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz

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20 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Riding out the humps and hollows Tim Fulton timfulton050@gmail.com EARTHQUAKE survivors Dave and Rebekah Kelly feel stronger after a 7.8 earthquake that knocked back their original farming plans by at least a decade.

“You feel grateful as opposed to hard done by,” Dave says.

Their 2000ha sheep and beef farm in the Waiau hills of North Canterbury erupted in the November 2016 Kaikoura quake.

A slip blocking the Leader River created a 1km-long dam the world soon knew as Lake Rebekah and the quake’s huge thrust of energy formed the mind-boggling, threemetre Waiau Wall.

Like the people of Christchurch, the Kellys are still making the mental adjustment to their new terrain.

“Even the wild animals had a bit of a shake-up, just sitting on the ridge tops wondering what happened.”

Every day they see sheer bluffs where there used to be farm tracks.

Rolling ridges disappeared and some sheep had to be rescued from crevices wide and deep enough to stand in.

In the first few weeks after the quakes the Kellys asked themselves if they were in the right business.

The quake unravelled more than 10 years of hard work on Woodchester Farm, from fencing to QE2 covenants.

The family has spent about half a million dollars repairing fences and buildings and restocking.

Now Rebekah is convinced the quake experience made them stronger as a couple and as farmers.

“You ask yourself ‘is this worth fighting for?’ And the answer is yes.”

She did briefly consider whether it would be easier to pack up and move to Australia but it would likely have taken more than a bone-shaking earthquake to make her quit.

Rebekah grew up on the farm, which has been in her family for more than 100 years.

Understandably, she thinks of it as turangawaewae, a place to stand.

“There’s four generations here of just turning the lights out and just gutsing it out. That’s part of our story.”

For a while, the Kellys’ inclination to dig in didn’t serve them especially well.

They buried themselves in farm and family at the expense of personal wellbeing.

Rebekah took the shoes off her horses, telling herself she didn’t have time for riding.

Looking back, it was like the couple was trying to put the world right all at once – and it was never going to end well.

They now cut themselves some slack.

The shoes are back on the horses and the family takes opportunities to get off farm, whether it’s for sport or invitations to share their experience with farming groups and others.

Rebekah says one of the best things she did was joining the Agri-Women’s Development Trust and the Post-Quake Farming Group, both of which gave her new insight into running family and farm business.

Dave has discovered a bit about himself too.

Woodchester has never looked picture-perfect like the pages of a seed catalogue so he and Rebekah decided they were better off farming to the land’s limits.

He also realised it’s pointless getting hung up trying to be a champion farmer.

“If you don’t increase your stocking rate by a couple of units per hectare in the first couple of years you’re not a loser.”

Rebekah says since the quakes they’ve become better about involving the whole family in decision-making.

“When both members of the farming team are under the pump you’re really in trouble.

“If the whole team isn’t involved in setting goals and making changes it’s much harder.”

Now, instead of wasting mental energy on second-guessing their decisions, they tend to agree a

course of action and go for it.

“It’s just about being able to ride through the small little humps and hollows. You make a decision and don’t look back.”

The Kellys are part of a government and industry-funded initiative future-proofing quakedamaged properties across Hurunui, Kaikoura and southern Marlborough.

Recognising that the craggiest bits of the farm have never been easy to subdivide, the farm is extensifying, as Dave calls it.

That means accepting some of their broken hillsides are irretrievably lost to pastoral farming as they knew it.

Therefore, they’re working out the best alternative or complementary land uses, including passive forms of income like beekeeping.

“It’s creating a little bit of money that you fix things up with that doesn’t eat grass.”

Stronger beef and lamb prices are helping to pay farm repairs out of regular cashflow faster than they expected.

It all helps the family to look at life “beyond the black and whiteness of business”, Dave says.

SMILES: Rebekah and Dave Kelly are stronger after cutting themselves some slack and developing a strategy to keep themselves sane after the Kaikoura earthquake.

NO STRESS: Dave and Rebekah Kelly have decided to farm within the limits set by their quake-damaged farmland.

Do you know someone who could make a valuable contribution to the Farmlands Board of Directors?

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2018 DIRECTOR ELECTIONS FAR_08244

In accordance with the Society’s rules, the Board has confirmed a Director election will take place in each of the North and South Islands.

If you know a shareholder that would make a great Farmlands Director, criteria and nomination forms can be downloaded from www.farmlands.co.nz or by contacting Company Secretary, Catherine Walker, catherine.walker@farmlands.co.nz or 0800 200 600.

Nominations must be received by post at Farmlands, 535 Wairakei Road, Burnside, Christchurch 8053, or email to the Company Secretary no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 13th September 2018.

News

farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Decisions made.

Made smarter.

21

IN FORCE: While bureaucrats sort out the Healthy Rivers plan farmers have to obey its rules because it has been notified.

Healthy Rivers plan delayed 18 months DELAYS in the Waikato’s Health Rivers plan caused by iwi protests over the plan’s boundaries have forced Waikato Regional Council to push out the plan’s submission and hearing period.

Councillor and farmer Stu Kneebone said while it might be interpreted as yet another delay it is purely a result of the one delay from the iwi protest last year.

“Under the Resource Management Act we are required to have a decision released on the plan from the hearings within two years of notification, which would have been this October, but as a result of the delay in dealing with the earlier issue this just was not going to be possible.”

The council has voted to extend the period by 18 months to have more time for hearings and determining submissions that have proved to be complex and plentiful.

The council received 1084 submissions covering a spectrum of proposed changes and issues relating to the plan.

As a result of the delay the council has also had to push out the final dates for farmers to complete the controversial nitrogen reference point data required for all farms in the catchment.

They now have another 20 months from the March 2019 deadline to furnish their property’s NRP. Kneebone said as frustrating as the delay is, it is essential the full consultation process can run its course.

“The commissioner wants to give all submitters a fair

hearing so, really, the delay is a positive for the process and that includes for us in the regional council who have also made submissions on aspects of the plan we do not think are quite right.”

A strong theme through submissions against aspects of the plan is a concern about the focus on nitrogen loss management.

Federated Farmers is among several submitters calling for a rethink and addressing nutrient losses through a managed subcatchment approach within the greater catchment.

Waikato Federated Farmers president Andrew McGiven said more and more evidence presented through the submissions indicates nitrogen losses are not always the significant issue.

“So, the longer things are delayed and the more this can be discussed, the better.

“I think what we were concerned about was that the decision might be forced out before the local body elections.

“The downside is that any farmer wanting to make any land use changes is required to comply with the plan’s changes as they have already been notified.”

He is also concerned the push out on dates might lead to what is supposed to be a 10-year first stage period in the 80-year scheme being condensed into nearer to six years.

“The timelines were pushed out on the NRPs but we are yet to hear if they will be pushed out further.”

North Waikato dry stock farmer Steven Stark welcomed the delay, maintaining the more time council has to take a considered approach to the plan, the better.

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FULL PANEL: Waikato Regional Council chairman Alan Livingston says fifth Healthy Rivers commissioner Greg Ryder has freshwater experience.

“There are a lot of submissions on this and I think the longer the time spent, the more support the Federated Farmers’ submission will get around sub catchment approach to managing the issues.”

Given the scale of the plan it is possible the council had underestimated just how much time will be needed to consider it and the submissions.

The fifth and final independent hearings commissioner has been appointed to the hearing panel.

Fresh water ecologist Greg Ryder of Dunedin joins four other commissioners on the panel chaired by Greg Hill.

Council chairman Alan Livingston said Ryder is familiar with plan change issues in the South Island and his background meets the need to have a fifth commissioner with freshwater expertise to ensure robust decisions.

See more.

Go to hawkeye.farm or call 0800 73 73 73

RAV-HE16JUL-FW04

Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz

INSIGHT TO ACTION

News

22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Synthetics a threat and an opportunity Glenys Christian

FATAL: Some farmers believe synthetic proteins have the potential to crash the New Zealand beef industry.

A SURVEY of 17 sheep and beef farmers found synthetic proteins aren’t seen as a high risk to New Zealand food producers.

Most of them saw other risks such as political and environmental influences as being more important.

Innovation is happening very quickly and it is difficult for farmers to stay ahead but some see synthetic proteins’ arrival as an opportunity to

Q. Is it time to take stock and breed stock?

A.

push the benefits of sustainably produced, grassfed, premium products.

Jared Briggs, who investigated the subject for his Kellogg project last year, did an online literature review then developed nine questions to better understand farmers’ awareness of synthetic proteins.

Seventeen sheep and beef farmers from across NZ were selected with their farming operations being a mix of family enterprises and large commercial operations.

All agreed there is not enough information readily available for farmers on synthetic proteins and what information there is can be overhyped.

Briggs next asked farmers whether they see synthetic protein as a potential threat or opportunity.

“Having spoken to many farmers on the topic previously I thought more would find synthetic protein a threat,” he said.

“However, nearly one in four respondents see synthetics as an opportunity.”

Asked why, some said it is a chance to sell NZ’s story of how natural its products are and how the natural strength of its environment is used to produce a protein they said there is an opportunity for NZ to distinguish itself and force the industry to add value and pitch premium product to the world.

But others see the cost of mass production of synthetic products being a lot cheaper than natural protein and so having the potential to crash the NZ beef industry.

Nearly one in four respondents see synthetics as an opportunity.

Jared Briggs Kellogg scholar

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The products could out-compete NZ’s dairy beef and lower value commodity end of the market but are not a threat for niche products.

One said other opportunities need to be considered for sheep and beef farmers so they aren’t reliant on one product.

Asked the acid question as to whether they would try a synthetic meat burger themselves only 47% said they would. Three answered with a definite no and six were undecided saying a synthetic meat burger is not the real thing or they wouldn’t do it as a matter of principle.

One said consumers can’t beat the eating experience of a good piece of steak naturally produced from an animal ethically bred specifically for superior eating quality.

Farmer discussions are taking place with a range of views expressed from synthetic proteins being just one more worry on farmers’ plates to those urging fellow farmers to continuously change and evolve and look for alternatives.

Asked about the top risks to their farming operations over the next five to 10 years answers spanned political and environmental restrictions as well as public perception and social licence to operate and lack of understanding.

Only one farmer saw synthetic proteins as a highrisk with the rest rating it medium to low risk.

Briggs hopes as information becomes increasingly available to farmers more of their time will be spent learning how to adjust to the changing conditions.

“This will result in farmers making positive influences on their own futures,” he said.

He recommended farmers keep up to date with the latest innovations, read the B+LNZ report on the potential threat of alternative food sources and further discuss the subject at focus groups and with peers. They should also continue to produce the world’s best grass-fed, natural protein, promote it accordingly and support fellow farmers through changing times.

farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

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NO BALANCE: To date there has been too much caution and not enough progress, genetic technology advocate and former Federated Farmers president Dr William Rolleston says.

Genetics fight is not finished yet Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz FEDERATED Farmers’ former president Dr William Rolleston, who supported efforts to prevent Hastings District Council declaring itself GM-free, believes the fight over farmers’ rights to adopt the technology is far from over.

This month Federated Farmers abandoned its bid to overturn the council’s declaration.

Rolleston was a strong opponent of efforts in both Hastings and Northland to have the areas declared GM-free by their councils.

He said while it was regrettable Federated Farmers has decided not to continue with the action it does not necessarily mean the supporters of GM Free Hawke’s Bay have won.

“Really, this case remains untested in court so it’s only a win in the meantime by default.

The question that has not been tested in court is whether being a GM-free region adds a premium to food produced there.”

He pointed to Tasmanian experiences with GM-free canola crops and in South Australia where farmers have failed to gain premiums for being GM-free.

A report by commodity consulting company Mercado indicated farmers in South Australia have little to gain by maintaining GM-free status for canola.

But Rolleston doesn’t believe the Hastings outcome means it is time for another Royal Commission.

“I think it is more a case of thinking harder about what

the original Royal Commission recommended, which was to proceed with caution. To date there has been far too much caution and too little progress.”

Federation president Katie Milne said the organisation simply does not have the resources to devote to the GM issue in court when other burning issues, including Mycoplasma bovis, are putting demands on it.

“We do still question whether New Zealand has been overwhelmed by those that think the brand response for being GM-free is stronger than the technology’s potential that exists but has not been examined. It is about having that tool there in your toolbox and we are not going to have that.”

She noted two councils, Queenstown and Timaru had pushed back against becoming GM-free, seeking to keep options open in the future.

But opponents of Federated Farmers’ efforts to overturn Hasting’s GM-free status are celebrating the group’s decision to abandon its efforts.

The decision comes closely on the heels of the Feds withdrawal in May from their bid to overturn Northland’s status.

Hawke’s Bay organic farmer and long time Pure Hawke’s Bay spokesman Bruno Chambers said having the all-clear that the region’s GM-free status will be preserved gives producers a sound springboard for marketing and promotion of the region’s produce.

“This provides a way forward to sell the Hawke’s Bay. There are exporters out there keen to get labelling sorted and to sing the praises of Hawke’s Bay being GM-free.

“Being GM-free gives us

a competitive advantage to market our high-end agricultural products internationally. Many regions around the world are officially GM-free. Finally, we can join them rather than being left in their wake.”

Chambers said the decision by the European Court of Justice that gene editing be subject to the same conditions as genetic modification adds extra impetus to the decision in NZ with respect to the Hawke’s Bay and Northland outcomes.

“There was a lot of anticipation around this ruling and thought that the ruling would be in favour of genetic editing but that is not the case.”

But Rolleston said the United States decided earlier this year genetically edited foods are just as safe as ones bred conventionally.

“And the argument is GM food will sell at a discount but look at the Impossible Burger. It includes GM and is selling at a premium.”

The backdown from court action here has found favour with one of the country’s largest apple growers.

John Bostock, managing director of produce company Bostock NZ and grower of apples, squash, grain and onions heralded the announcement as a chance to make Hawke’s Bay the Tuscany of NZ, promoting it as the country’s premier growing region.

“Attitudes to GMOs may change in the future but for now GM-free is a must for premium markets and we are now well positioned to supply that demand.”

Hastings now joins Auckland City, Whangarei and Far North districts as GM-free.

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24 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Mataura Milk plant about to start work Annette Scott annettescott@globalhq.co.nz START-UP dairy company Mataura Valley Milk will match the best milk price offered in the South and top that with incentives to reward suppliers demonstrating superior on-farm practice, its milk supply manager Dave Yardley says.

Mataura’s new $240 million milk plant at McNab, just south of Gore, is on schedule to take its first milk on August 20.

The plant, backed by stateowned enterprise China Animal Husbandry Group (CAHG) in partnership with local farmers and Kiwi investors has been two years in construction.

Mataura set its sights from the beginning on making the world’s best infant and adult nutritional powders, a complex and exacting business Yardley said is all falling into place.

“We are delighted with where we sit as a new company and we are very comfortable with the supply we have secured at this stage.

“We have a good bunch of quality farmer suppliers and as a start-up business we will grow that from here.”

Mataura has 24 suppliers.

“We are not expecting to reach optimal capacity in the first year as we want to be sure we progress every step to perfection before we take the next and that’s extremely important for a nutritionals plant as opposed to a commodity processor.”

Yardley said Mataura is focused solely on adding value through excellence.

“Milk is not our biggest ingredient. For example, our stage one infant formula only contains 22% milk.

“We are not a milk gobbler.

“We are a specialist nutritional plant and there’s quite a difference in manufacture and the quantity of milk required.

“While we are capable of being a milk processor, that’s not our game.”

It is likely MVM will recruit more suppliers up to a maximum 40 next season to secure the optimal milk required for its nutritionals programmes.

At full capacity the plant will process about 500,000 litres of whole milk a day, producing about 30,000 tonnes of formula a year.

About 80% to 85% of its nutritional products will be exported.

The company is offering a competitive milk price and a supply premium of 20 cents a kilogram of milksolids, Yardley said.

On top of that Mataura is offering a range of incentives based on milk quality and on-farm performance.

“What we are paying farmers will match the best down here (Southland) and at the moment Fonterra has put up $7 so with the 20c premium MVM forecasts $7.20.

“On top of that, milk payment advantage through the incentives programme has potential to add a further 35c so we could be at $7.55/kg MS for suppliers achieving full benefit from the incentives programme.”

Mataura’s advanced schedule will pay farmers in August, ahead of Fonterra’s October payment.

Yardley said Mataura did not canvass suppliers but waited for prospective suppliers to approach it.

Fonterra and Open Country Dairies are the two key competitors in Southland.

HIGH GRADE: Mataura Valley Milk’s plant is built to pharmaceutical standard allowing it to do a lot of what other plants can’t do, its supply manager Dave Yardley says.

While we are capable of being a milk processor, that’s not our game.

Dave Yardley Mataura Valley Milk “Our 24 start-up suppliers are all from Fonterra and all we have done is respond to inquiry so we are delighted farmers want to come on board with us. That’s been a huge positive.”

All suppliers are shareholders, a requirement of the Chinese partners who like them to also be owners. They pay a base subscription share price of $2.25/ kg MS. The number of shares issued is proportionate to the annual share valuation, now 85.2c a share.

“Farmers have seen the nutrition-focused strategy as an

attractive alternative to dwindling commodity returns.”

Yardley said nutritionals is not just about infant formulas as increasingly throughout the world there’s growing demand for adult formulations for an ageing population wanting superior nutrition.

“Demand for that is growing end on end.”

Other growth areas are the health and sports sectors.

“As medical science progresses there’s more focus going on nutritionals for any number of health-related conditions and sports drinks are a growing market too.

Mataura is focused on delivering value-add through nutritional formulations and custom-built the plant to meet that demand.

“We built and certified the plant to pharmaceutical standard so that allows us to do a lot of what other processers in New Zealand are not able to do.”

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Mataura is the only plant in NZ with nutritional compliance to standards set by the Ministry for Primary Industries, China’s Food and Drug Administration and the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Another layer of validation of systems and processes by an external agency has been added above that compliance to provide further quality and safety corroboration for customers.

To sell nutritional formula at $85 a can instead of $30 means everyone along the chain has to strive for excellence.

“We are going beyond compliance to validate to customers that everything in the business is working as it should.

“And we are well geared to meet the growing demand for nutritionals and pay returns accordingly to farmers for excellence while striving to be the world’s best nutritionals business,” he said.

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

25

Group aims for measurable gains ACHIEVING measurable business gains is the aim of a diverse group of King Country farmers who have formed a Red Meat Profit Partnership Action Group to focus on benchmarking and using Farmax software.

The group meets regularly to talk about ways to improve their farm businesses and profits.

“I think we’re going to be able to dig fairly deeply into people’s businesses and work out their cost structures and help them with that – where they’re making their income from and where they can make some efficiencies,” member Martin Coup, who’s also a new farmer director on the board of Beef + Lamb New Zealand, said.

Facilitator and AgFirst consultant Steve Howarth said when he advertised a meeting about action groups in the B+LNZ e-diary 50 farmers expressed interest and 30 turned up, resulting in four new groups, including the Waitomo one, being formed in the area.

“The overall goal is to encourage and support individual group members to reach their farm business goal.

“Every farm is different and has different goals but as a group we have a lot of horsepower and we’ll use the benchmarking to have good fact-based discussions and bring in experts where we can to help them,” Howarth said.

Coup said it is important to him to have diversity in the sheep and beef farming group.

GRASSROOTS: The Waitomo Action Group is keen to focus on benchmarking to improve profit.

The overall goal is to encourage and support individual group members to reach their farm business goal.

GET IN QUICK: Farmers have nothing to lose and can learn useful things from Action Group membership, King Country farmer Martin Coup says.

Steve Howarth AgFirst “There’s quite a range of ages and I guess by having diversity you’re going to see a whole lot of different things and get a whole lot of different pictures from different people about what they want to achieve and, by having that diversity, we’ll all be able to help each other in that.”

Younger member Alan Dudin is keen to hear about the latest technological developments and get his business “ticking along a bit better”. He sees benchmarking as an important part of that.

“I don’t really know how we stack up against a lot of other businesses of similar size and scale around the region.

“I want to see what’s working best for other people and take some stuff on board for our business really,” Dudin said.

The members have decided to open-up their financials to each other, meaning there’s no way to massage their figures to shine a better light on their businesses.

“Take something simple like weaning percent for your sheep.

You can cut that a lot of different ways,” Howarth said.

“Is it the number of ewes at tupping, ewes at scanning, ewes at lambing? You can make it look a lot better but with Farmax it’s standardised so you can’t touch them.”

One of the ground-rules is that no private information is shared outside the group.

“What happens within our group stays within our group. No one else is going to know about that.

“It was pretty big to say we want to put our names against

those figures because some of these guys haven’t been in groups before but I think that’s going to be really powerful and if they can make an extra $100/ha then it’s all worth it, isn’t it. That’s what we’re there for,” Coup said.

Dudin believes that openness will make the group work and lead to greater profitability.

“With benchmarking we can drill down to what actually works and it’s getting the numbers behind that which is key really,” he said.

“It’s around the horsepower that you can bring to the table through the other people and, to be fair, most people who are involved in

these groups are committed. They want to improve.”

The RMPP Action Network was set up following research into how best to get not only new information to farmers but how to help them act on it.

“We looked at a whole lot of models on what was the most efficient way to do that,” Coup said.

“One-to-one would have been great but it was just so costly and with one-to-many, say 45 in a big discussion, people didn’t necessarily go home and make changes.

“But if you say within a group of nine farmers that you’re going to

go home and you’re going to feed your ewes better or change your genetics or put a crop in then the next time they see you, they’re going to ask, ‘Have you done that?’ and hold you to account.

“I always think if you’re going to do something, tell someone and that kind of holds you to it.”

It’s up to the members of each group to decide what they want to focus on be it financials, practical on-farm action or personal development.

“That is the beauty of the Action Network. There is flexibility to design something that suits the individual group,” Coup said.

Each farm business is eligible for $4000 kick-start funding, which is pooled to pay for a facilitator and to bring in experts.

Participants are encouraged to be open and honest and to freely express their opinions.

Howarth recalls a farm tour where pasture quality was being discussed. One farmer ripped out a handful of grass and described it as “crap quality”.

“The owner could have taken that quite negatively but the group got into a good discussion and we drilled right into it. It was saved feed for cows over the winter and had probably been locked up too soon. So, there was a good positive outcome that came out of that.”

Coup has high hopes for the group.

“I had the Action Group experience and I believe in it. I just think if you haven’t had it, what have you got to lose?

“You can only learn – you’ve got nothing to lose on this and it’s not going to cost a heap of money because RMPP is providing kickstarter funding.”

MORE:

actionnetwork.co.nz

26 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Newsmaker

NO FRILLS: Direct woollen carpet retailer Glenn Wilcock in his home-based showroom.

Photo: Johnny Houston

Wool carpet man takes on synthetics Glenn Wilcock has a lifetime experience in the carpet industry and believes in wool so much he sells nothing else. And he has developed a business model aimed at keeping prices down. He tells Tim Fulton how he does it.

G

LENN Wilcock has been making carpets for so long starting his own retail business was almost as natural as woollen fleece.

Just as naturally, his enterprise is based in the old mill town of Kaiapoi, where wool and sheep meat kept the community in clover for well over 100 years.

As the sole operator of Carpet Online Wilcock is embracing the apparent madness of directselling woollen floor cover in a retail industry dominated by synthetics.

His converted home garage is a display room and his only major concession to big industry is a rented warehouse in Christchurch and regular travel to maintain contacts in Australia, Asia and Turkey.

He has a stylised sheep on his front fence, advertising on the side of his prized Daimler and uses social media and a website, www. carpetonline.co.nz He competes in a world of giants, all the more so because he

sells only woollen carpets.

A friend in New Zealand carpet retail chided him for the woolonly approach.

“He said ‘you’re concentrating on 8% of the market. You need to get some synthetics’.”

Wilcock, who doubles as a carpet manufacturing consultant, was having none of it.

The true madness he sees is New Zealanders – famous for sheep farming – sloping into retail showrooms with a hankering for wool but leaving with an oil derivative.

Synthetic marketers have pushed wool to the back of the showroom and the only way to make it front-and-centre is to sell carpet direct to the customers, he said.

“People want wool but they’re pushed away from it.”

One of the reasons that happened was that historically the only carpet manufacturers with the power to retail wool carpet relied more on synthetic sales.

Wilcock understands the difficulty for manufacturers and

retailers but does not believe trying to sell woollen carpet and synthetics simultaneously would end well for him or for farmers.

Wilcock spent 20 years with a Christchurch yarnmaker now run by the Carrfields group.

Two years ago, after helping the business start afresh under the new owner, he set forth on his own venture.

People want wool but they’re pushed away from it.

Glenn Wilcock Carpet retailer The native Englishman started in the wool trade as a 16-year-old and learned about manufacturing, distribution and marketing.

He has seen up-close why carpet-makers and customers opt for synthetics: wool can be fragile and requires extra human handling. Wool’s a natural product so it’s variable.

“You can do so much as a spinner to eliminate that – and we do – but it’s not so strong. If you put a synthetic product to a

manufacturer they can do three times the production than you can do with a wool yarn. No matter how good you get your wool yarn, it’s going to beat that.”

Carpet Online sources woollen carpet from Turkey, where Wilcock does consultancy, and also has it made in New Zealand by a manufacturer earning most of its income from synthetics.

Selling direct to customers online isn’t original but Wilcock is determined to find a niche right here at home.

His mate in the carpet trade tells him “Glenn, if you can figure out how to sell wool to New Zealanders, you’ll make a fortune”.

If he had a notional customer it would be a Mrs Jones who browses the company website or spots the Daimler purring around town.

With any luck she will find a deal, courtesy of his procurement and retail model.

“Price-wise, you go to a retail store and it’s 50% (more) on a carpet straight away.

“Here, I’m running out of a garage and I’ve got a warehouse in Christchurch that I rent.”

He tries to keep costs down.

He bought the Daimler 14 years ago and has long-since paid it off.

Most of the company’s advertising

Prices and product • Carpet Online sells wool carpets 35oz and upwards • It sells Loops and Europe twist for $95/lineal metre at 4m wide ($24 m2) • Some synthetic carpet at a lower weight sells for $100/lineal metre • New Zealand is a twist pile, heavy duty market • The premium range is 45oz for NZ wool • It sells for $125/lineal metre 3.65 wide ($34 m2) compared to a similar wool carpet in a retail shop at more than $200/lineal metre.

budget is on the side of the car.

Wilcock also stocks only lines and colours he believes most customers want.

“If I haven’t got it available I don’t sell it, simple as that.”

Despite appearing to be a oneman operator, he is confident about securing any off-the-shelf requirements without undue drama.

“It’s not a problem. I could get it specially made. I’ve got all the contacts.”

It comes down to selling “bloody good product”, he said.

New thinking

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

27

Our farmed meat is a green food Exporters are not shy in promoting New Zealand red meat as grass-fed and free-range but recent studies by Oxford and Otago Universities have lumped our system in with feedlots to claim the industry is environmentally degrading and unsustainable. Neal Wallace investigates the true environmental impact of grass-fed beef.

W

ORK to differentiate the environmental footprint of New Zealand’s pasture-based red meat sector from feedlot systems that have a far greater impact has begun.

Beef + Lamb NZ chief insight officer Jeremy Baker said NZ grass-fed, free-range beef has been included in international studies that claim beef production is a major contributor to climate change.

In reality NZ livestock emissions have been falling and the environmental footprint is smaller than beef finished on feedlots.

The launch of B+LNZ’s Taste Pure Nature brand and associated environmental strategy are designed to differentiate grassfed, free-range beef free of genetic modification and hormones.

Consumer research shows beef that meets that criteria not only attracts new consumers but can earn price premiums of 20%.

There has been a huge change in productivity of the sector and the profitability of the average farm is better than it was in 1990.

Jeremy Baker Beef + Lamb NZ

“That really is worth going for,” he said.

But the message has to get out and several recent international studies lumped pasture-based and feedlot systems together to conclude beef farming is damaging the climate and is unsustainable.

But research by scientists in the Netherlands and more recent work by AgResearch countered that claim, finding free-range systems use much less water than feedlots.

International researchers have determined feedlot beef production and processing uses 680 litres of water a kilogram of meat but AgResearch found NZ’s free-range beef system uses 45 litres a kilogram of beef and sheep meat 20 litres a kilogram.

Processing adds another 20 to 70 litres a kilogram to beef and lamb, still well below that used on feedlot systems.

Baker said the news for freerange farming gets better, with greenhouse gas emissions falling

30% since 1990 while production has been maintained and the value has increased 63%.

Emissions from beef alone have fallen 10% over that period.

“There has been a huge change in productivity of the sector and the profitability of the average farm is better than it was in 1990 – a great story of the sector doing more with less.”

Our farming system has a positive story to tell but that doesn’t preclude the need to address water issues such as nitrogen leaching, runoff and emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, Baker said.

Reducing or eliminating nitrous oxide is challenging because it is a long-lived gas but reducing and stabilising the short-lived methane gas is more achievable.

Science has determined that to restrict global warming to under 2C, methane emissions need to be stabilised at less than 1990 levels.

B+LNZ is seeking Government acknowledgement of the carbonsequestering role of the 1.4 million hectares of native forest on the country’s sheep and beef farms.

“That is a very significant carbon sink,” Baker said.

Native bush absorbs carbon for 300 years but is not counted as a greenhouse gas carbon sink because most stands predate the 1990 baseline on which international climate change agreements start while the Emissions Trading Scheme is based on areas of plantation forestry.

The Paris Agreement on climate change offers hope the carbonsequestering values of native bush can be counted.

“The Paris Agreement is broader with domestic policy enabling the Government to work out how to meet our obligations with a bit more flexibility than the Kyoto Protocol, which was tighter and more prescriptive.”

Getting credit for the carbonholding ability of soil and pasture is more difficult because of the absence of internationally accepted science.

There is potentially four times as much carbon stored in soil than in trees but scientists have been unable to determine how it is fixed or how management affects the amount stored, he said.

Carbon is stored at plant root level and there is general agreement drought causes it to be released.

AgResearch principal scientist Stewart Ledgard said researchers around the world are investigating the sequestering value of soil and pasture and some research shows carbon is stored but then the science becomes complicated.

During photosynthesis plants, algae and some micro-organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars incorporated into their cells – some of which are eaten by animals.

Decomposing animal material, plant matter, fungi, worms, bacteria and other microorganisms all contribute carbon to the soil.

Most of this organic material degrades quickly with microbes feeding on it and releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere through respiration.

However, a small proportion of it becomes tightly bound to the mineral surfaces of soil particles or encapsulated in clumps of soil particles.

In that state the carbon in soil organic matter is physically protected and less accessible to microbes.

DRY ARGUMENT: Pasture-fed, free-range sheep and cattle use only a fraction of the amount of water needed for stock on feedlots, Beef + Lamb New Zealand chief insights officer Jeremy Baker says.

They are stabilised and can remain locked away for tens to hundreds of years.

Ledgard said research shows carbon accumulation occurs over many years when land use changes, such as from crop to pasture or trees to pasture.

“Once you have got stable

pasture, plants and roots die and bugs in the soil use that and discharge carbon back in to the atmosphere.”

There is a chain of thought carbon accumulation stops after several decades but Ledgard said French scientists are researching further into carbon accumulation.

NO CREDIT: The 1.4 million hectares of native trees on sheep and beef farms are not acknowledged as carbon sinks.

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Opinion

28 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

EDITORIAL

Life lessons from a damaged farm

F

ARMING’S a tough enough job at the best of times. When your farm’s ripped apart by a major earthquake, well, that would be enough to make many contemplate a life of traffic jams and air-conditioned offices. That’s just what happened to Kaikoura farmers Dave and Rebekah Kelly a couple of years ago.

The earthquake might have presented them with a new lake but it also presented them with a whole heap of problems they’re still working to overcome. In just a few minutes their rolling hills were replaced with deep crevices that posed problems for both farmer and stock. Ten years of work was gone.

It made them consider whether it was worth carrying on but it seems they made the right choice. They remembered the generations who came before them and the deep connection they had to the land.

And, the Kellys appear to be thriving, with a new-found philosophy for farming borne out of that natural disaster. They got through by accepting help, recognising what they could and couldn’t do and being okay with that and not second-guessing themselves.

That’s great advice for for the rest of us, even when times aren’t so tough.

With issues such as Mycoplasma bovis giving farmers more worries that normal it’s important to have that clarity of thought. Focusing on what you can control and being confident in your decisions is the key to staying on top of things mentally and in your business. The important thing is to cut yourselves some slack, as the Kellys did. “It’s just about being able to ride through the small little humps and hollows. You make a decision and don’t look back.”

They’ve now got a renewed focus on their farming busines and are looking at new ways to farm their much-changed land. And, they’re making sure they take time out from the farm to care for themselves as well as the damaged land. It’s a great lesson for us all.

Bryan Gibson

LETTERS

Saleyard wisdom tells a story I THOUGHT I’d test the real oil at Frankton saleyards over the last three weeks with young calves arriving on the market. My clear conclusion is farmers and some agents consider the Mycoplasma bovis crisis to be over and it’s time to get back to normal stock-trading practices.

Comment was the slaughter of stock and stress on farmers could all have been avoided because the disease is here to stay.

Many told me of unbelievable problems they’d had with Nait and the frustration of trying to get information out of bureaucratic organisations so they could make important farming decisions.

If the info ever arrived it was weeks or even months late,

blamed on the Privacy Act. They are now so frustrated they have given up worrying about impending disaster and are just getting on with life.

I took two visiting British dairy farmers to the sale and they couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about because, if their cows got incurable mastitis, arthritis or any of the other M bovis symptoms, the animals were treated as a normal animal health issue and incurables culled.

The conclusion I got from my saleyard visit was the great loss of faith so many farmers have now got in organisations that are supposed to help them and, sadly, it will take some time and effort for this to be restored.

Clive Dalton Hamilton

Food off GOOD on Winston Peters, NZ First MP Mark Patterson and National’s agriculture spokesman Nathan Guy for giving Air New Zealand a good bollocking about the disgusting, fake, genetically engineered Impossible burger.

As a consumer I’m appalled by our national carrier Air NZ’s ill-advised decision to serve on flights from Los Angeles to Auckland a controversial new synthetic, low-quality food that has not even been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as safe to eat.

This is not, putting aside the misleading hype from Impossible Foods, a nourishing, high-quality vegetarian product produced in a sustainable way.

This is a genetically

engineered, fake American product whose disgusting ingredients include water, protein powders, glues, factory flavourings, flavour enhancers and synthetic vitamins.

No organic food company would consider selling this rubbish as nourishing food.

Impossible foods claims SLH gives the fake meat a “bloody” meat-like flavour.

In my view, any meat served on Air NZ flights should come from our high-quality, beautiful, grass-fed beef and lamb supporting the Taste Pure Nature brand.

A high-quality vegetarian patty, from a NZ company like Bean Supreme or Sunfed Meats, should be provided as an alternative, not an imported, unsafe GE product.

Linda Grammer Whangarei

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

29

GM grass just treats symptoms John King

W

HENEVER people ask me about genetically modified ryegrass I remind them of a statement credited to retired AgResearch scientist Tom Frazer who, addressing a farm group discussing new clover cultivars, said “You already have about 100kg/ha of huia (white clover).

Do you think 3kg/ha of new clover cultivar will make a difference?

How will you tell?”

My question is how will it be any different when introducing GM ryegrass?

As almost everyone following this space knows, most GM plants are designed to be herbicideresistant.

The only way to maximise projected profits is to spray out all other pasture species.

Twenty-five years of herbiciding GM crops in North America resulted in more than 160 herbicide-resistant weeds.

Just how that outcome helps farmers is never mentioned.

It fits up there with feeding cows mashed brains and spinal cords – science where only farmers are held accountable.

Does GMO ryegrass address root causes farmers face?

Overseas research is continuing to challenge monocultures of any pasture species – that pastures and crops produce more biomass when planted in polycultures than on their own. Different plants with diverse leaf shapes, angles and volumes result in pastures photosynthesising more sunlight and producing more and different kinds of exudates to enhance a living soil community that builds better water-holding capacity and fertility.

New Zealand research also shows livestock production improves with multi-species pastures, particularly deep rooting plants.

The

Pulpit

EXAMPLES: Two pictures taken on same day. On the left an area sprayed with glyphosate for 12 years. On the right one sprayed for three years. Over time only very low fertility grasses survive. Note the colour highlighting their poor health.

Spraying to maintain a monoculture promotes the myth one plant can provide all nutritional needs, John King says.

There is no mention of whether roots of these ryegrass plants go deeper or are more vigorous in growth than non-GM cultivars.

Methane is a short-term greenhouse gas.

Retired Australia Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Walter Jehne is one of the best communicators pointing this out.

Transpiring grasses release water vapour loaded with hydroxyl ions. These ions convert methane into carbon dioxide and water. Climatologists have known for more than 60 years water vapour accounts for 95% of global heat dynamics and carbon dioxide is 4%.

The reason climate scientists can’t see the elephant in the rumen is that it’s too big to fit.

So what do farmers really need to know about methane?

Transpiring grasses release 100 times more hydroxyl ions to deal with methane from livestock grazing that exact same pasture can produce.

As Jehne points out, to save the world from a Siberian methane burp we need more grasslands grazed by livestock.

Drought? On farm most droughts arise from poor decision-making around grazing practice. Just how this new ryegrass will prevent farmers overgrazing it is unclear.

If farmers continue their existing practices that exacerbate drought conditions this ryegrass will not correct their habits.

Research and consultants constantly mention it’s not types of technology, crops, livestock or whatever else farmers use that determine profitability, it’s financial discipline as well as the ability to observe surroundings and act that matter.

More sugar? Higher sugar levels result in plants maturing faster and livestock on shorter rotations. What will that do for soil compaction, reducing irrigation, soil aeration and the constant need for pasture renewal?

Shorter rotations reduce root integrity resulting in livestock pulling plants out of the ground.

GM ryegrass grows faster but there is no mention of whether mean annual production also increases, higher or lower levels of mineral nutrients are required or whether speeding up plant

metabolism increases pasture longevity.

Even sugar ryegrasses change their composition when excess nitrogen fertiliser is applied by reducing complex sugars required for fast regrowth after grazing, thereby lengthening recovery periods between grazing.

There is also no mention of whether livestock prefer this grass over others.

Again in North America wildlife refuse to graze GM crops because they are bitter and maize cobs contain chemicals like formaldehyde.

In feedlots farmers notice livestock behaviour changes when eating GM feeds.

Animals become restless and agitated and death rates rise over time when livestock are confined to GM feed.

Farmers here report similar outcomes grazing fodder beet and swedes sprayed with chemical cocktails.

Just like in North America no research is ever done on the impact these chemical cocktails have on livestock health and performance.

Thing is, GMOs have huge potential.

Imagine if science could produce a grain that thrives in a perennial grassland, doesn’t require additional fertiliser, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, with straw that properly decomposes on soil surface contact, seeds remain true for the following season and people get healthy eating the grain and suffer no unintended consequences.

That is highly unlikely is because of the difference between how nature works and how humans think.

Luckily, we have farmers now looking for solutions to bypass this risky and expensive technology.

MORE:

John King specialises in holistic and regenerative farming. He can be contacted on 027 6737 885 or john@ succession.co.nz

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30 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Synthetic wave is now a tsunami Alternative View

Alan Emerson

A YEAR ago I wrote about the threat to New Zealand of artificial protein, primarily meat and milk.

While there have been quite a few articles, speeches and discussions of the subject since then I get the sincere impression that we’re not actually doing anything, as evidenced by Jack Keey’s Pulpit in last week’s Farmers Weekly.

I believe the threat has moved from being a wave to resembling a tsunami.

I also believe we can survive the threat but we have to do a lot more than we are doing.

The present debate reminds me of NZ’s reaction, some decades ago now, to the threat of artificial fibres.

They’ll never replace wool was the universal feeling.

The argument then went on to tell us about wool being a longlasting, natural fibre that was as good as it gets, sustainable and environmentally friendly – all of which is true.

In 1960 wool provided 70% of a sheep farmer’s income. In 2010 it

was just 16%. The wool industry has been devastated by synthetics and that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon.

Now we have the real and present threat of synthetic meat and milk.

My point, simply put, is we need a single, national plan to handle the threat of fake meat and milk. If we don’t develop strong national strategies we’re going to get well and truly screwed.

In the 50-plus years we’ve had the threat of synthetics our wool industry has not developed any national strategies.

There’s been a pile of ad hoc lurching from crisis to crisis driven largely by arrogance and egos but nothing concrete that everyone has brought into.

That said, I wish Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor all the best with his wool initiative. It’s not going to be easy.

Getting back to synthetic meat, the first thing that needs to be done is to correct all the misinformation, the fake news about the product.

The second is to position NZ produce as a cut above anything else, sustainable and environmentally friendly.

On the artificial meat side the Impossible Burger has been hailed as a pristine example of environmental friendliness.

I have problems with that, starting with its genetic engineering or modification.

I think it is somewhat ludicrous that we can get massive bleats about the evils of GE whenever the subject is raised yet it tends to be the same people embracing artificial meat.

Mufri milk, now called Perfect Day, is similarly genetically engineered.

Beyond Meat is a cultured product that requires animal blood, serum and sugar.

Sugar is needed in many socalled natural products but it is important to acknowledge that sugar production requires land, a considerable amount of tillage, fertiliser and is heavily processed.

We need a single, national plan to handle the threat of fake meat and milk.

The greenhouse gas emissions the process encourages are considerable and the amount of land required is significant.

To get artificial chicken onto our supermarket shelves we have to import yellow peas from Canada.

They have a large environmental footprint.

In addition to the genetic engineering there are other unexpected products involved, such as xanthan to reduce animal-

ACT NOW: New Zealand is good at talking about the threats of fake meat and milk but not a doing anything about them.

free products’ high water content.

Xanthan was developed to thicken drilling mud in the oil industry.

In addition, the intensive manufacturing process used to produce artificial meat and milk represents a whole new phase of industrialisation with all the trade-offs that will involve.

So my view, unsurprisingly, is artificial products aren’t the great environmental hope they’re made out to be.

I look forward to some good investigative journalism on the subject.

The reality, however, is that artificial proteins are here and now. They are a considerable threat to animal proteins.

That threat will be at the bottom level, certainly initially. I can’t at this point see a good fillet steak coming out of soy.

The vast majority of our exports are bulk commodities. We send containers overseas full of milk powder, butter and frozen meat.

That needs to change. We’ve been saying that for decades.

We’ll also need to have NZ telling a really good story but, as I’ve said in the past; it needs to be a national story and not one of the various sectors doing their own thing at the expense of others.

For a start, our grass-fed meat and dairy are natural products that aren’t heavily processed using lots of additives and genetic engineering.

They are, to coin a phrase, clean, green and natural.

The simple issue is that we are not addressing the problem as a country and we need to do that and now.

We need a single, national strategy and if we don’t, meat and dairy will follow wool.

Most of all we need strong leadership that will get a team together, the industry groups working as one and a realistic goal that everyone buys into.

Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath-emerson@wizbiz.net.nz

It’s easier just to be nice to each other From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

FREE speech. Hate speech.

It’s an important issue and a tricky distinction, it turns out.

I know I’m confused in my own mind about this stuff but let’s mull it over to see if I can clear that confusion.

Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship or sanction.

Hate speech is defined as speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of attributes such as race, religion, ethnic origin, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.

So, a person intent on hate speech should have the freedom to espouse those views without sanction?

Not exactly. There are laws limiting their ability to do so.

Here in New Zealand the Human Rights Act 1993, section 61 (racial disharmony) makes it unlawful to publish or distribute “threatening, abusive or insulting ... matter or words likely to excite hostility against or bring into contempt any group of persons ... on the ground of the colour, race or ethnic or national origins of that group of persons”.

It was not introduced by some liberal leftie government but a National government under solid Jim Bolger.

I’m proud to call myself a social liberal so that all seems reasonable to me but if you are of a more conservative bent, its possible to see things differently.

This, of course, has all come to a head with the arrival of the two Canadians, Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux.

They label themselves Alt Right.

Others call them straight-out racists.

They are certainly white supremacists with their claims whites are superior in every way including intelligence.

This, of course, overlooks the fact that anyone not of recent African descent is descended from Africans who walked north out of Africa some 100,000 years ago and evolved lighter skin to be able

CONFUSED? Steve Wyn-Harris would prefer Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux stay in Canada but he doesn’t want to deny their right to free speech.

to synthesise vitamin D from less sunlight.

My social liberal ethos means people like Southern and Molyneux make my white skin crawl.

I would rather they stayed in Canada and didn’t come here to proselytise their sick views.

But, surely, even they shouldn’t be denied the right to free speech?

Well, not if it breaks the law under the Human Rights Act but they obtained a visa so the powers that be thought not.

Perhaps that test would have been met once they were here and did cause trouble.

I think Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and his council were within their rights to deny access to

council-owned property.

But I did like the suggestion by a commentator after the other venue pulled the pin that they be invited to a marae to put their views and to hear the views of others. Anyway, they are gone and good riddance.

Then, just when you think the conundrum between free and hate speech has been put away in the bottom draw for a time, Massey University bans Don Brash from speaking on campus.

Now Don is an odd man with many views I don’t share but he was very nearly prime minister back in 2005.

Vice-chancellor Jan Thomas cited security fears but foolishly went further and claimed Brash’s

silly Hobson’s Pledge and their views was another reason for the ban. Racist and bordering on hate speech, she claimed.

It probably is but just a month ago in an editorial she wrote “Universities support our staff and students to push boundaries, test the evidence that is put to them and challenge societal norms, including examining controversial and unpopular ideas.”

The delicious irony is that Massey is named after Prime Minister William Massey who was a magnificent racist in his own right.

He once said “New Zealanders are probably the purest AngloSaxon population in the British Empire. Nature intended NZ to be a white man’s country and it must be kept as such.”

This whole debate around whether something is free speech or hate speech is starting to make my brain hurt.

Wouldn’t it just be easier if we lived and let live, accepted diversity and were just all nice to each other?

Your View Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. swyn@xtra.co.nz

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

31

M bovis compo a mixed bag The Braided Trail

Keith Woodford

CLIMATE OF FEAR: Farmers, worried about hurting their compensation claims, are scared to voice concerns about the Mycoplasma bovis response.

seems to know who will pay for this help but it seems unlikely MPI will pay.

Some farmers are also having difficulty getting prompt payment for obvious costs such as transport of replacement animals to their farms for restocking. I have seen recent MPI correspondence to one farmer, who was trying to expedite these payments, that MPI is “unable to commit to a timeframe” as to when these payments will be made. This is unacceptable and inconsistent with earlier messaging from Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor.

Across the spectrum, male and female, these farmers tell me they hate MPI.

Loss of income claims are never easy. The challenge is that losses have to be verifiable. It is easy to document what the income is now but much harder to document what it would have been.

Sign-offs require four to six signatures from multiple ministries. Sign-offs are required from bureaucrats who have no understanding of the specific realities. No-one wants to make a mistake. A mistake could be fatal for career prospects.

Multiple cases have emerged of faulty animal tracing despite Nait records being complete. The reasons for this are multiple, some being linked to weaknesses in the Nait system and some being weaknesses in the relationship between Nait and MPI. One farmer, whose case I have been following, knew MPI was barking up the wrong tree and the

animal trace movements had to be incorrect. MPI refused to discuss it with him. It was only through an Official information Act request he belatedly realised the real animal movements were in the reverse direction to what MPI believed.

That particular flaw was a key reason why some of us knew many months before MPI did that the earliest known infections were in Southland rather than Canterbury.

Several MPI and AsureQuality case managers have been trying to sort out tracing errors. But the managers are nervous about trying to sort out the bureaucratic bungles. As one told me he is resigned to being depopulated from his job because of the problems he is creating for his superiors. He is not the only one.

Recently, I met a farmer who has gone infection-positive despite no clinical signs of disease. I asked him how he was dealing with the stress. He told me that in six hours he would be back in the shed milking the death-sentence cows.

He said by milking cows he keeps busy and that helps keep him sane. He hopes he can forestall eradication until the policy changes. The hardest job in the meantime is killing all the progeny calves at birth.

Although the Rural Support Trust is trying to help farmers, in most cases the trust members can do little because they have no influence in regard to the fundamentals causing the stress.

At least one farmer has already taken the ultimate step with an M bovis notification being the apparent tipping point on top of other issues. There will be lots of post-traumatic stress disorder when this is all over.

When farmers contact me their attitude ranges from extreme belligerence to MPI to fateful resignation they will go under.

Across the spectrum, male and female, these farmers tell me they

excellent communication skill but hate MPI. One farmer told me “I they do not have the technical love my cows but I now hate a lot knowledge to answer questions. of humans. I believe I have let my They, too, are stressed. cows down”.

My key message to O’Connor Most affected farmers would is what I have written here about like both the wider industry and human stress is just the tip of the politicians to understand the iceberg. Those members of the stress they are all under. But they Technical Advisory Group who are also nervous about being expressed concern about potential identified. They are scared that effects of stress and battle fatigue if they are identified to MPI their knew this eradication war would compensation claims will be put not be over for many years. on the naughty chair.

Does the Government My own interpretation is understand what it is in for? though there is bullying it is not sanctioned. Rather, when officials are themselves in stressful Your View situations they tend to become dictatorial and arrogant. It is a Keith Woodford was Professor of defence mechanism by officials farm management and agribusiness who lack the necessary skills. at Lincoln University for 15 years to Farmers keep asking me if I 2015. He is now principal consultant have influence with MPI. I tell at AgriFood Systems. He can be contacted at kbwoodford@gmail.com them I have zero influence. All I can do is put information in the public arena.

However, MPI does hear what I say though it doesn’t like me speaking on such matters.

At two recent farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz industry seminars where MPI 2IC presented its Agribusiness standard M bovis Farm Manager powerpoints Livestock Co-Ordinator and where I was Manager presenting on totally unrelated Shepherd topics, MPI put Shepherd/General strong pressure on Stock Supervisor the organisers to Stockperson ensure I did not Tractor/Truck/Machinery ask questions of Operator their speaker.

In fact, I had Employers: Advertise your vacancy in the no wish to ask employment section of the Farmers Weekly questions because and as added value it will be uploaded to these officials farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz for one month or close of application. can present only the company Contact Debbie Brown 06 323 0765 line. They have or email classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

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THE complexities of Mycoplasma bovis compensation are causing much angst for the Primary Industries Ministry and farmers.

Simple claims are being dealt with in a matter of weeks.

More complex cases get stuck.

Unfortunately, most cases are complex.

The easiest cases for MPI should be where farmers have dairy beef. Once the farms are depopulated, to use the official term, it is a painstaking but straightforward process of disinfection then clearance some 60 days later. Replacement dairy beef animals should be easy to find though, of course, there is a risk of reinfection if bad choices are made.

In practice, the depopulation is straightforward if sometimes brutal but the compensation gets complicated. Dairy-beef animals are being slaughtered at times farmers had not intended, usually earlier but sometimes later because of slaughter approval delays. Either way, there are complications around animal valuations and feed issues.

Where breeding animals are involved the complexity gets much greater. Also, there is a lot of emotion in farming families who love their cows which they have bred for so long.

For breeding herds the compensation problems start with determining the cost of replacement animals.

This situation is exacerbated because most infected dairy herds to date have been large-framed Holstein Friesians with top-line imported European genetics. In all likelihood the association with breed simply reflects where the M bovis stealth bombers landed.

From there they have spread to similar farms through sale and purchase of animals. Like-for-like replacements are increasingly hard to find.

With these previously infected properties there is also a risk of the replacements being positive for M bovis. This has happened to at least two farmers with the healthy bought herds fortunately being identified as infected after the purchase but before physical transfer.

Some farmers have accepted the valuations of MPI’s agents to get quick payment but others are holding out or agreeing only to provisional payments with the right for reassessment once replacements are bought.

Where there are disagreements it is helpful to have professional advisers involved. That lessens the risk of bullying. Also, many farmers are too stressed to negotiate themselves. No-one

32 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

On Farm Story

Farming still pulls heartstrings Tourists and commuter traffic along with proximity to Auckland keep Rob and Rachel Cashmore aware of the scrutiny farming is under. Rob’s not backward at sticking up for farmers but is also conscious of his role in protecting the land and nature while farming commercially.

Glenys Christian reports.

T

HE power and speed of international communication was clearly shown to sheep and beef farmers Rob and Rachel Cashmore when tourists uploaded an image that made it to Holland and back to them within a day.

The tourists were driving past the couple’s Orere Point farm when a mob of sheep on the road close to the house made for a holiday photo with the caption “Not a traffic jam you’d expect this close to Auckland”.

Within hours there was a comment online that the photo looked as though it was taken outside their place. It was forwarded to Rob’s brother, Ben, who lives in Melbourne, then on to them.

That brought clearly into perspective what they say are the advantages as well as disadvantages of farming just 50 minutes from the centre of the

supercity. Not only do they see the Sky tower when they’re on top of the 600 metre hills to which the 1100 hectare farm rises, they can also see north as far as the Hen and Chicken Islands sitting off Mangawhai in lower Northland as well as Port Waikato on the west coast.

But with no cellphone coverage they rely on a booster from their broadband connection for service at their house.

“We see the positives of the soil type and the diversification options,” Rob Cashmore said.

“And farming still pulls on the heartstrings.

“People still like the idea of living on a lifestyle block. And the argument is swinging back to looking after farming when people see the degradation of some urban areas.”

He was brought up on the farm settled by Cashmores in the 1860s.

His father, Bill, owns the property now but as his local government

FAMILY: Rob and Rachel Cashmore with daughter Kate.

commitments grew, first as Franklin ward councillor and now as deputy mayor of Auckland, Rob has gradually assumed more of the management reins on the farm.

He went home for a year after finishing secondary school then set off to Lincoln University to study for a farm management diploma. That led to working on a number of properties in Canterbury and Southland, finding that he liked the South Island lifestyle. He also had a six-month stint overseas on an Angus Association scholarship that saw him based with one large United States stud farm that has properties in Nebraska, Ohio and Iowa as well as a large semen collection centre in Montana.

By 2009 he was ready to return home so worked for wages for his father.

“In 2012 I asked to be upgraded to livestock manager and that role has morphed into being a full manager,” he said.

He and Rachel met at the end of 2010 in Auckland while out with friends.

She’s originally from Hunterville, growing up on a 1400ha sheep and beef property.

She enrolled at Otago University after school, studying health science.

But she soon realised agriculture was where her heart lay so switched to a science degree at Massey University, which she completed with a double major in agriculture and animal science.

She worked first for The Vetservice Group then as a dairy consultant for Shepherd Agriculture, out of Dannevirke.

Next she moved to Bayer NZ taking up a role as territory manager, initially in the north East Coast/eastern Bay of Plenty area, which then transitioned to

TOUGH: Every year has different drawbacks, Rob Cashmore says.

the entire East Coast. In 2011 her territory became even larger as she moved into a position selling equine and over-the-counter products in the area from Kaitaia to Te Kuiti for a year.

The argument is swinging back to looking after farming when people see the degradation of some urban areas.

The following year a marketing brand manager’s role came up in Auckland and she has been there ever since. She’ll return to the company’s animal health division in Manukau in a month after maternity leave for the birth of Catherine (Kate), almost one.

The couple also have an older son, George, 3.

The farm now runs about 8000 stock units with the balance still tipped in favour of sheep rather than cattle. Two-thirds of their Romney flock goes to a Romney ram and a third to Dorset Down rams bought locally.

They have four lambing dates with the first two mobs three weeks apart starting on July 15, all destined for the pre-Christmas

British market. The main Romney replacement mob starts six weeks later and the hoggets lamb at the start of November for saleable winter lambs. They aim to get 1000 lambs away before Christmas with the hoggets’ progeny leaving the property the following August.

Growth rates have been slowed this winter by persistent rain. They usually rely on about 1100mm annually.

Straight Angus cattle are run, which start calving on September 1.

“The heifers will be gone at 12 to 16 months at around a 220kg carcase weight,” Cashmore said.

The bulls are sent off the farm at 20 months at over 300kg with the steers in October at a similar weight. All stock is sold to slaughter.

About 20 hectares of chicory is grown every year to boost feed reserves.

Cashmore said he’s done quite a few things differently since arriving back on the farm, with his father’s full support. There’s been a switch from making hay as a supplement to baleage, with about 150 bales made every year.

He’s also introduced bovine viral diahorrea (BVD) inoculations for all the cattle.

“Every year has different drawbacks,” he said.

Theileria was a biggie several seasons ago as Auckland farmers

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

33

marketing and education campaigns around primary produce, environmental footprint and industry protection to make it future-proof.

“There have already been a few balls dropped in driving intellectual property around farming references and names, allowing synthetic products to be branded in an evocative way,” she said.

And it’s likely this will become even more critical as The Impossible becomes more normal and mainstream.

Aucklanders now believe anything farming is dairy farming based on what’s covered in the media.

ONE MAN AND HIS DOGS: Rob Cashmore has a clear perspective of both the advantages and disadvantages of living minutes away from the centre of Auckland.

realised it had probably been in their herds for some time but their stock didn’t have the immunity those in Northland had built up.

“Drench resistance is popping up again and Mycoplasma bovis is now at the forefront.

“Farmers are very aware that with graziers it could be coming to anywhere locally.”

Last year’s big drawback was the autumn flood that took four months out of his working year from April to August. For some reason just the week before he had moved stock to higher ground, which turned out to be fortunate.

“We knew it was going to rain but not that much,” he said.

“And it just continued and continued.”

Large slips came down and bridges, culverts, floodgates and fences were all washed out.

The main access route through the farm couldn’t be used so he

quickly got a digger in to open that up again. Yards at the back of the farm couldn’t be used for some months with stock needing to be brought to the front of the property for some time.

“They’re mostly repaired now,” he said.

“But there are still some fences which are down.”

Task Force Green workers went onto the farm for months following the flood to help get everything back in working order.

“There’s nothing better than looking at a brand new fence,” he said.

“It’s a good accomplishment and it’ll be there for the next 30 years.”

With 400ha of bush on the farm kauri dieback is one of Cashmore’s big present day concerns. All the bush on the property has been fenced off for some years and he’s strong on biosecurity.

“I know who is on the property and where they’ve been,” he said.

“And I expect all trucks coming here to be clean.”

He doesn’t know yet of any kauri dieback found on private land and thinks that might be a big part of future moves to reduce the disease’s impact.

“There will be trees which are resistant to it,” he said.

“But it might take 500 to 600 years to get back to kauri forest again.”

In more recent times he and Rachel have noticed a substantial increase in the number of cars travelling past their house and over the narrow and winding hill road to Kawakawa Bay to get to Auckland.

“People are sacrificing driving time to get affordable housing,” he said.

As a result they now have a rule of limiting stock movements

along the road at any hour of the day and have put in more lanes to significantly reduce the need to use the road. But if campervans stop for tourists to take photos of their stock they’ll sometimes invite them into the shearing shed to get an even closer look.

Both Rachel and Rob have been heavily involved in Young Farmers. She even travelled back to Ballance where she was chairwoman after a change of job saw her relocate. Rob was Franklin Young Farmers chairman for a number of years and last year moved up to become Auckland Federated Farmers’ meat and wool chairman. He’s a strong supporter of the work it’s doing in the compliance area and said it could benefit from selling the benefits of belonging more to farmers.

Both he and Rachel believe there’s a lot to be done on the right research to build nationwide

“Everyone’s jobs are just two degrees of separation between them and agriculture,” she said. “ I think there are a lot of people who don’t quite understand that.

We all financially benefit and rely on agriculture in some way.”

“Aucklanders now believe anything farming is dairy farming based on what’s covered in the media,” he said.

That was demonstrated to them recently when a school group visited the farm with the pupils equipped with pre-organised questions from their teacher. Even after being on the farm, seeing the livestock and machinery and sitting in the woolshed they asked about how many cows they had and what time was milking, he said.

“I had to put them on to Rachel.

I’ve never put cups on a cow in my life.”

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34 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Ag exporters want access to Britain MAJOR agricultural exporters are looking to change Britain’s food standards as part of the negotiation on splitting the European Union’s tariff rate quotas after Brexit.

The quotas determine how much other countries can export to Britain and Europe before tariffs kick in.

The two propose cutting New Zealand’s meat export quotas in half for each market.

British and European diplomats managed to hash out the deal to carve up the quotas for agricultural produce to enter the EU, based on historical import volumes, the UK Farmers Guardian reported.

NZ has objected because that will reduce its ability to direct products to the areas of greatest demand and best prices.

It along with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Thailand, the United States and Uruguay joined forces to complain about the agreement, which they claim

will leave them worse off.

A report by the European Centre for International Political Economy has suggested several countries will look to re-open discussions on European sanitary and phytosanitary regulations, such as bans on chlorine-washed chicken, as a way of compensating for their loss of access to United Kingdom and EU markets.

“Major agricultural exporters already have a number of issues with the EU about tariff rate quotas and sanitary and phytosanitary regulations and this split is a chance to make progress on these with the EU and set a new framework with the UK,” it said.

Meanwhile, a trade expert has warned British government plans to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership will mean lifting an EU ban on hormone-treated beef.

UK Trade Policy Project director David Henig, a former

Uncertainty, volatility are the major worries FARMERS and those in the wider food and drink supply chain in Britain feel positive about their business prospects in the short-term but their confidence drops when looking ahead to Brexit.

With just eight months to go before Britain leaves the European Union a survey of farm and agri-food businesses in Yorkshire found 71% of farmer respondents and 82% of food, drink and wider supply chain companies are very or fairly positive about their business prospects.

But that plummeted to 37% and 51% respectively once outside the EU. The results highlighted the feeling of uncertainty weighing on many, with the picture thought to be replicated across the United Kingdom.

The most pressing issues for 49% of farmers relate to uncertainty and volatility in terms of business costs and farmgate prices.

Other key issues include the future trade regime, labour supply and retention and cashflow and profitability.

More positively, some businesses have taken steps to make themselves more resilient ahead of Brexit with 39% of farmers reducing costs or debt, 23% diversifying and 17% changing their farming practices.

More than a third of wider

supply chain businesses (37%) had made changes, with the most common response (31%) being an investment in automation or other business efficiency.

National Farmers Union northeast regional director Adam Bedford said “It is encouraging to see a proportion of our farming and agri-food businesses taking steps to make themselves more resilient.

“But the point was made by most that continued uncertainty is a real stumbling block to effective decisionmaking.”

For companies, the top two issues were skills/ labour availability (31%) and consumer confidence or falling demand (18%) while 11% saw uncertainty over what a domestic agriculture policy will look like as a pressing concern, 23% have changed their recruitment policy or workforce requirements and 14% have invested in expansion.

On leaving the EU, 44% of farmer respondents and 33% of wider supply chain companies said a focus on financial incentives such as productivity grants is the most likely to have a positive impact on business confidence.

And 16% of farmers said more should be spent on research and development.

civil servant at the Department for International Trade , made the remarks after the launch of a government consultation that proposes UK accession to the trade group, which covers 11 countries including Malaysia and Vietnam.

“The UK government is signalling it is open to changing food standards in order to deliver trade agreements.

“The government will be aware we would need to lift the existing EU ban on hormone-treated beef to join TPP though you will not find this in the consultation document.”

But a department spokesman said the government will not lower food standards in trade deals, the Farmers Guardian said.

However, the Independent last week reported Australian meat industry leaders are heavily lobbying their government to put pressure on Britain to accept products now banned under EU law.

GOOD FOR US: A more liberal British import regime would deliver substantial benefits for Australian red meat exporters, Meat and Livestock Australia market access global manager Andrew McCallum says.

They included growth hormone treated meat and burnt goats heads. About 40% of Australian cattle are treated with growth hormones banned in the EU since 1981.

It quoted a letter from Meat and Livestock Australia’s trade and market access global manager Andrew McCallum to the Australian Parliament that said “Brexit provides an unprecedented opportunity for the Australian red meat industry to enhance its trading relationship with the UK. “A more liberalised UK import

regime than is currently in place would deliver substantial advantages not only to the Australian red meat industry but to UK importers, wholesalers, distributors, food service and retail operators as well as consumers,” he said.

EU and UK Red Meat Industry Taskforce chairman Jason Strong told a British Parlimentary committee hearing Australia wants not only to send more highquality products but also those of the lowest quality such as cheap burnt goat heads.

Court cops US battering over Europe’s GM ruling A EUROPEAN Court of Justice ruling that subjects gene editing to the same regulations that cover genetic modification has been slammed by the United States.

US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue branded the ruling a setback in an extraordinarily critical statement.

“Government policies should encourage scientific innovation without creating unnecessary barriers or unjustifiably stigmatising new technologies.

“The ECJ ruling is a setback in that it narrowly considers newer genome editing methods to be within the scope of the European Union’s regressive and outdated regulations governing genetically modified organisms.”

Britain’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Michael Gove has previously embraced the prospect of expanding gene editing technology, telling this year’s Oxford Farming Conference it offers the possibility of conquering human and animal diseases.

Keenness to differentiate gene editing from genetically modified technology was apparent at a Farm Foundation forum in Washington DC last month.

Genetic editing technology brings advantages vital for US agriculture, industry expert panelists said.

To be competitive and a global leader in agriculture the US Department of Agriculture views all science-based innovation as a

ATTACK: United States Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has criticised the European Union for its outdated genetic modification regulations.

vital tool. Panelists explained the difference between editing and modification technologies.

Editing uses cells from the same species to create desired traits while modification technology introduces genes from other species in the genome of target cells.

Recombinetics executive vicepresident and chief commercial and scientific officere Dr Mitchell Abrahamsen spoke of solving problems in animal production through precision breeding for animal health and productivity.

He said public perception is critical to advancing editing technology so the key to wider public acceptance must be through benefits in animal health and welfare.

“How do we improve animal production systems in different parts of the world where disease

and viral stress increase pressure on animal health and challenge food safety concerns?”

Genetic editing companies prefer authorities to regulate products and not the process.

Abrahamsen said the ECJ ruling was both disappointing and unexpected and will to put the EU at a real competitive disadvantage.

“Other countries will take the lead and there will be huge trade issues coming up until we resolve this.

“It is likely we are going to see animal production systems moving to other areas in the world.

“This judgment will limit innovation and technology, not only for animal welfare but also for the impact of our global food production systems on the environment.”

UK Farmers Weekly

World

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

35

New system traces stolen stock

PROTECTION: British farmers a using a new, high-tech system to deter stock thieves.

at a recent British national police conference.

Cumbrian sheep and beef farmer Pip Simpson of Poolebank Farm, Troutbeck, started using TecTracer earlier this year after thieves stole more than 300 sheep from his farm over a four years.

Simpson dyed his sheep a luminous orange in 2015 to discourage the thieves but couldn’t repeat it last year because

of a wet summer so he turned to using the TecTracer marker paste.

After Simpson’s ewes disappeared his wife Hannah put a post on Facebook pleading for their return and informing people the sheep were marked with TecTracer. The post went viral and two weeks later the sheep were mysteriously returned to a field during the night.

“Clearly the thief thought the

sheep were too hot to handle.

“We got a lot of interest on social media and someone contacted us to say our sheep had been seen in a field in Chorley.

“They then told us they’d seen a pick-up loading them and the next day they reappeared in the field.

“The sheep are on an enclosed fell with no roads. It’s got to involve someone who knows the area well and has the tools for the job. Not everyone can just round up sheep and take out ear tags and put new ones in,” he says.

Simpson reckons the thefts have cost him about £30,000.

“It’s not just the cost of the sheep you have to take into account, it’s also the loss from potential lambs that could have come from those sheep.”

Simpson also changed his sheep breed from Herdwick to North Country Cheviots in a bid to curb thefts.

“We had about 700 Herdwicks at the time and would buy draft ewes and put them to a Charollais tup. There seemed to be more of a demand for the Herdwicks. They would take 20-30 at a time but that soon adds up,” he said.

When he changed the breed in 2015 he bought 400 North Country Cheviots. For 12 months there

Scammers are targeting farmers FARM technology linked to the internet is being targeted by hackers to gain access to valuable farm data and shut down key functions.

Without the appropriate security software installed in systems, such as those used for operating modern milking parlours and GPS, farmers are leaving themselves exposed to cyber attack, Dyfed-Powys Police financial crime team member Paul Callard warned.

During a Farmers’ Union of Wales farm security event Callard said cybersecurity should be an important part of farming processes.

He advised running two separate computers, one for business and one for personal use, investing in new kit every two years and destroying redundant machines.

With fraud accounting for 48% of all crime in the United Kingdom it is becoming more commonplace for farmers to be defrauded via the internet, by telephone or on the doorstep.

The reasons are multiple, including increased use of internet sites to buy and sell machinery and criminals seeing farmers as an easy target because many live and work in isolation.

“Farmers quite often spend a lot of time on their own and might not have someone to discuss that suspicious email or telephone call with before acting on it.

“None of us think we will fall victim to a scammer but

these people put a lot of time and effort into convincing people they are who they want us to think they are.”

Callard said farmers should never feel rushed or forced into a decision.

“Give yourself a bit of thinking time,” he recommended.

One common scam involves promised listings in business directories.

Pembrokeshire County Council trading standards officer Sandra McSparron said farmhouse bed and breakfast providers have been caught up in business directory scams.

“People will call claiming to provide advertising space in a magazine but those publications are often not printed in bulk or even distributed or, if they are, not in the numbers described.”

Eco-energy is another favourite with rogue traders operating in rural regions, she said.

“We have recently been involved in a case where a farmer paid £14,000 to a doorstep caller selling air source pumps.

“The company did exist but they were not trading fairly. They made forecasts on savings but when the pump was installed on the farm the savings quoted were nowhere near what had been promised.”

Trading standards will intervene in cases where farmers believe they have

were no thefts. However, in July 2016 it started again when 22 ewes and 28 lambs went missing.

“It was at this point we decided to dye all the sheep and lambs orange, which was about 700-800 head using carpet dye.

“We got a lot of publicity and we didn’t lose any after that.

Clearly the thief thought the sheep were too hot to handle.

Pip Simpson Farmer “We also didn’t see any knockon effect with the wool price. The downside is if everyone starts doing it then it’s not such a good deterrent. It also doesn’t last as long.”

That’s why he turned to TecTracer, which cost double the price of normal marker paste.

However, he said it is worth every penny.

“It’s definitely worth the extra cost if it means you are not losing any sheep. The tub covers a lot of sheep as well,” he said.

0076663

200x71.67

agrievents RMPP Action Network – Facilitator training courses For rural professionals or farmers looking to run an Action Group under RMPP Action Network. No course fees.

Register at www.actionnetwork.co.nz/training Lead Facilitator workshops • Whangarei 3 & 4 September • Hawkes Bay 20 & 21 September • East Coast/Gisborne 16 & 17 October • Christchurch 7 & 8 November

BEWARE: Farming operations are at risk if appropriate security is not installed in electronic devices.

been the victim of a rogue trader.

McSparron warned farmers never to be taken in by someone offering to reduce their business rates in return for a fee.

“The scammers encourage people to sign the paperwork with the promise of a cooling off period but if the person withdraws the caller employs very aggressive tactics to persuade them to change their mind.”

Criminals might already have basic information about farmeres in their possession so people should not assume a caller is genuine because they have such details or because they claim to represent a legitimate organisation.

Farmers should be wary

of unsolicited approaches by phone and cold callers who suggest hanging up the phone and calling them back – fraudsters can keep a phone line open by not putting down the receiver at their end.

A bank, the police or a government body will never phone to ask for a PIN number or online banking password or ask farmers to transfer money to a new account for fraud reasons.

Farmers should be suspicious of any calls, texts or emails purporting to be from those organisations, should use an app installed on a mobile and not a computer for online banking.

“If it seems too good to be true, it is. Think before you agree to anything.”

Action Network Fundamentals & Extension Design workshops • Hamilton 19 & 20 September • Whangarei 9 & 10 October • Hawke’s Bay 17 & 18 October • Invercargill 24 & 25 October • East Coast/Gisborne 13 & 14 November For more info contact info@actionnetwork.co.nz Thursday 27/09/18 Rural Business Network Effective Industry Collaboration for Environmental Gains - Rebecca Hyde Venue: Barge Showgrounds Events Centre, Whangarei Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm Website: https://my.youngfarmers.co.nz/rbn/events Wednesday 31/10/18 Rural Business Network Positioning for a very different future - Dr Warren Parker Venue: Barge Showgrounds Events Centre, Whangarei Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm Website: https://my.youngfarmers.co.nz/rbn/events Saturday 1/12/18 Whangarei A&P Show – One Epic Show Day Venue: Barge Showgrounds, Maunu Road, Whangarei Time: 9.00am start Trade sites & Entries contact Chris 09 4383109 ext 3 website: www.whangareishow.co.nz

LK0085515©

A NEW livestock tracing system that marks animals with thousands of forensic coded microdots is acting as a deterrent and helping British farmers retrieve stolen stock.

TecTracer is being used by farmers to protect sheep, farm machinery, vehicles and even beehives while livery yards and stables are turning to it to guard saddles and other valuable equestrian equipment from thieves.

It was developed by John Minary, a former detective from a related product he made to deter thieves stealing lead from churches and heritage buildings.

It is applied to the fleece like any marking paste but contains thousands of little microdots, which have a code specific to the farm.

The codes are virtually impossible to remove but are easy to recover and read by the police.

Signs are also given to farmers advertising the fact that sheep are marked with the product.

The codes are held in a secure database and, should a theft happen, they can be broadcast to auction marts, abattoirs and the police. They can read them using an inexpensive microscope.

The technology was highlighted

Should your important event be listed here?

Ph 0800 85 25 80 or email adcopy@globalhq.co.nz

g n i tt Si

FENCE? ON THE

If the chatter around your place has been “will we sell?” or “shall we wait?”, then jump off the fence and be part of Bayleys’ next Country magazine – there’s no time like the present to secure your future.

Planning for the eagerly-awaited Spring edition of Country is underway now.

Country magazine has given owners of rural New Zealand property the opportunity to access motivated and serious buyers for almost 20 years.

It’s a proven way to get in front of the market and to tap into Bayleys’ extensive local, national and international databases at the same time.

Our rural sales team is hard-wired to do the ground work for you – that’s why Bayleys is recognised as New Zealand’s number one rural brand.

So talk to your local Bayleys office today and lock in your Country spot now.

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Technology and vast data sources mean New Zealand farmers will soon have forecasts tailored to their farming needs.

Fence sitters welcome!

To learn more about Country magazine, call 0800 BAYLEYS or visit bayleys.co.nz/country LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

To market, to market

Lifestyle block owners producing the goods for discerning shoppers at farmers’ markets around the country.

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Proud to be here For over 30 years, Property Brokers has been the specialist in helping people in the provinces buy, sell and manage their rural properties. No one knows property in the regions better than us because our people live in the areas in which they work, combining their local knowledge and passion with market leading expertise and reach.

So wherever you see our brand, you can trust that you’re working with a Property Brokers rural professional who will put you first. Because that’s the way we do things around here.

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38

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate 0800 85 25 80

Australia’s Top Dairy

Real Estate

WALCHA DAIRY, NSW 626ha opportunity awaits

Targeted to supply profitable northern liquid milk market • • • • • •

World class dairy on the NSW Northern Tablelands Producing over 7.3 million lts milk FY16/17, & over 7 million lts FY17/18 MS 533,000kg FY16/17 & MS $8.40/kg to May 31st FY17/18.

Milk income 64 CPL to May 31st FY17/18 Additional milk payments in July/August approx. 4.3 CPL & $0.54/kg MS. Significant NSW production and freight competitive advantages with Full management team in place Walcha Dairy is a true industry leader, making use of the latest technology and management practices to allow for the greatest productivity to be achieved.

Roderick Wyllie 0427 377 513 Roderick@protam.com.au

Stuart Watts

0439 661 655 stuart @protam.com.au

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 13, 2018

THE DESTINATION FOR RURAL REAL ESTATE

Land is the biggest asset to any farming business so it pays to stay up to date with the market.

Connect with the right audience at

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate

Keep your stock moving With our experienced agribusiness team For more information about our Agribusiness real estate transactions, valuations or advisory services, visit www.cbre.co.nz

FOR SALE

FOR SALE

FERNHILL FOREST LAND HILLSIDE ROAD, Porirua

ARANGA QUARRY HOOD ROAD, Kaipara

FORESTRY LAND 37KM TO CENTREPORT For the astute purchaser, the land under Fernhill Forest provides a unique opportunity to acquire a significant land holding only 37km from CentrePort.

The lower slopes already have roading and skids sites in place, with 82ha replanted in 2014. A Cutting Right is being retained across the balance of the crop through to 2022 following which the successful purchaser will assume ownership of substantial additional roading and infrastructure.

The underlying land potential and proximity to Wellington helps underpin the investment attributes.

www.cbre.co.nz/213641Q28

IMMEDIATE RESOURCE OR PASSIVE INVESTMENT SMALL-SCALE PRODUCTIVE QUARRY On behalf of NZTA, CBRE Agribusiness offers a rare opportunity to purchase a small-scale but productive operational quarry.

+ 18.6225ha* freehold title

+ 82ha in 4 year old Radiata

+ Vacant possession or potential long-term lease With proven records of extraction servicing a range to existing operator of agricultural and roading contractors and + Surplus to NZTA requirements substantial remaining resource, this will suit either + Rateable Value $230,000 active owner operators, or passive investors with the current multinational operator prepared to enter into a long-term lease.

FOR SALE $1.6m (plus GST if any)

Contact CBRE today for detailed information or a confidential discussion.

FOR SALE BY TENDER Closing Friday 14 September 2018 at 4.00pm

+ 381.52ha freehold land + 37km to CentrePort + First and second rotation forest land + 282.3ha productive area

JEREMY KEATING 021 461 210

WYATT JOHNSTON 027 8151 303

+ Historic extraction data available

WYATT JOHNSTON 027 8151 303

JEREMY KEATING 021 461 210

www.cbre.co.nz/215201Q38

FOR SALE INGHAMS PORTFOLIO Matamata, Waitoa and Putaruru

LONG LEASE INGHAM ASSETS CBRE as the exclusive agent is offering the opportunity to acquire the Freehold Interest in six facilities leased to Inghams including the Hatchery, Processing Plant and Breeder Farms in New Zealand.

Inghams is a long-running firm and one of the leading producers of poultry products across Australia and New Zealand. + Net annual rental of approximately $5.8 million + Long WALE of 21 years + Strong international covenant + ASX Listed parent company + Multiple further lease renewal options

DEADLINE PRIVATE TREATY Closing Thursday 13 September 2018 at 4:00pm*

CONTACT US JEREMY KEATING 021 461 210

MARK MAGINNESS 021 904 456

*Unless sold prior www.cbre.co.nz/215350Q38

CBRE (Agency) Limited, Licensed Real Estate Agent (REAA 2008)

New Zealand’s leading rural real estate company RURAL

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LIFESTYLE

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RESIDENTIAL

OPEN DAY

Cooks Beach

Flaxmill Avocados 1047M Purangi Road Flaxmill Avocados. The best and largest orchard to be presented to the market for quite some time. A true trophy property. 14.8 hectares with 11 can ha and around 1100 x 16 year old Hass avocado trees carrying a great crop.

Around 30,000 trays of fruit hanging ready for harvest. All the machinery and the crop are included in the sale. The manager of 16 years wishes to stay on in the cottage and says the orchard is still improving. Job done! This location is life at its best. The district is trendy; Flaxmill Bay, Ferry Landing, Cooks Beach and a five minute ferry ride to thriving Whitianga. The demand for avocado as a superfood is increasing rapidly worldwide. This is an industry on the up! I would love to send you more info and show you around on one of the three open days as advertised.

Location - tick, size - tick, crop - tick, fully managed - tick.

Contact me to be in. An absolute winner! pggwre.co.nz/TAR28700

NEW!

Rural Property Pulse Extra Issue 01 | August 2018

TENDER (Unless Sold By Private Treaty) Closes 4.00pm, Tuesday, 11 September VIEW 11.00-12.00pm, Wed, 15 August 11.00-12.00pm, Wed, 22 August Andrew Fowler B 07 571 5797 | M 027 275 2244 afowler@pggwrightson.co.nz

Just Released

Dairy Property Market Challenged Reviewing the 2017/18 year in rural property, the high level of sales activity during May and June is unusual, bucking traditional trends, and indicating increased listings on the market in late winter and early spring.

Mycoplasma bovis and changes to overseas ownership regulations are the major current influences on dairy investment decisions, and are holding the rural property market’s most significant sector in check. However, farmers able to rationalise them will be well placed to make the most of this season’s positive payout forecast.

Mycoplasma bovis is taking a psychological and financial toll on any farmer whose animals are infected.

Several are banking their compensation,

pggwre.co.nz

PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited, licensed under REAA 2008

settling up and ending their farming careers. In addition, the outbreak is also affecting the wider rural property market, initially where the incursion is already detected, though eventually flowing through to other regions.

Farmers now have a compelling incentive to make themselves selfsufficient. In affected regions, demand for smaller blocks and grazing farms has therefore risen sharply. As farmers seek to maintain herds without sending stock out to other properties,

Helping grow the country

The NEW Rural Property Pulse Extra offers a monthly perspective of what is happening in the rural real estate market.

To view, go to pggwre.co.nz/rural-property-pulse

PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited, licensed under REAA 2008

pggwre.co.nz

Employment

Classifieds

SHEPHERD/GENERAL

Marlborough coastal hill country station.

2300 acres plus 700 leased.

EXPERIENCED SHEPHERD TAUMATA MOANA STATION LTD

Applicants preferably to have own dogs.

Taumata Moana Station, a subsidiary of Steelfort Engineering Company Ltd, has a vacancy for an experienced shepherd. This is a full time position, created to add to our team, based on Taumatatotara West Road, Te Kuiti which is part of the 3400ha station situated on the coast 75km West of Te Kuiti.

Single accommodation available.

Apply to: Robert Fisher 027 496 2382 or Alec Tuanui 027 244 9270

SHEPHERD GENERAL

VETMARKER

With automatic release and spray system. www.vetmarker.co.nz 0800 DOCKER (362 537)

The applicant should have 2-3 working dogs under good control.

PURCHASING FERAL DEER

There is a comfortable 2-bedroom house supplied.

Name of two references to be supplied.

Please contact: Craig McGregor 06 326 8286 or tuscan.hills@xtra.co.nz

No worries as we’ll do all the hard work for you around health and safety, resource consent application and management.

Harvesting and trucking.

McNicholas Aviation Limited is a helicopter deer recovery operator based in Opotiki.

The aerial operation can selectively cull your feral deer population and pay a royalty. If required we can also seek and destroy any resident feral goat population.

The feral deer population has increased to levels seen in the 1950’s resulting in reduced winter feed for farmer’s stock, and damage to juvenile trees for forest owners.

Contact Lance McNicholas 027 294 7504

Sales Manager - Dickie Direct

(Shelters removed or harvested)

Tree Tec Ltd: What do we do?

We can purchase standing trees, land and trees or harvest and market on your behalf.

(from private blocks)

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LK0093810©

We run a sheep and beef farm and the person needs to be efficient in working well with stock.

LK0093733©

LAMB DOCKING / TAILING CHUTE

We are seeking a person who will be working alongside the manager, but will also have the ability to work solo.

GUARANTEED PAYMENTS Call or email Tree Tec Aaron West 027 562 3832 aaron@treetec.co.nz

MOA MASTER Quality you can rely on – GUARANTEED

Hawke’s Bay Based

TOWABLE FLAIL MOWER $3910 + GST

Fuelled off the back of significant growth, Dickie Direct Fertiliser presents this exciting opportunity for a Sales Manager to join their team. This is not a typical fertiliser sales role; with large scope you will be handed the responsibility for sales and customer management and you will play a key role in the efficiency of the supply chain in this innovative and fast moving business.

TOWABLE TOPPING MOWER $3570 + GST

Dickie Direct is prepared to meet the market in remuneration, in line with a top 10% performer including vehicle and a bonus component!

To find out more about this exciting opportunity or to apply, please visit www.ruraldirections.co.nz or phone the Rural Directions team in confidence on 0800 475 465 (Reference #2461).

“WOOD SPLITTER” 50 TON

12 HP DIESEL MOTOR “ELECTRIC START”

$3990 + GST

RECRUITMENT & HR

To find out more visit

Register to receive job alerts on www.ruraldirections.co.nz

www.moamaster.co.nz Phone 027 367 6247 Email: info@moamaster.co.nz

2IC – SMITHTON TASMANIA

Supported by the Farm Manager and two others, you will need to have excellent communication skills. The team is a cohesive unit that works well together to get jobs done efficiently and effectively. Senior staff share the workload and support each other. In the busy times casual and relief staff are added to the staff roster.

Infrastructure includes a 70-bail rotary shed with auto cup removers, automatic drafting and in race teat sprayer. There is an in-shed feeding system, new workshop and a 13-bay calf shed with a colostrum-pumping scheme.

Located just 15km from the close-knit community of Smithton, and an hours drive from the airport, this job comes with good accommodation. School bus is at the gate.

Do you have something to sell?

In a beautiful location, with great fishing just down the road and a generous roster, this could be just the role for you!

Closing date 21 August 2018

www.no8hr.co.nz | ph: 07-870-4901

Call Debbie

0800 85 25 80 classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

Testimonial Ezyline Homes Prebuilt have been advertising our homes in the Farmers Weekly for

NEW HOMES

a few years now.

It is the only form

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Our homes are built using the same materials & quality as an onsite build. Easily transported to almost anywhere in the North Island. Plans range from one bedroom to four bedroom First Home – Farm House Investment – Beach Bach

we continually get a good response.

We enjoy dealing with farming people and providing housing solutions to them and

LK0093892©

Our client’s farm is run as a simple and efficient pasture based self-contained unit.

They are now ready to employ a switched on 2IC with large-scale farming skills in a pasture-based system. You will be working alongside the Owners and Farm Manager to develop the farm to its full potential.

Please apply at www.no8hr.co.nz click Job Search and View Jobs In Australia. Ref#8HR1052

T HI NK P R E B U I L T

CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISING

• On the beautiful North West coast of Tasmania • 1500 cows milking once a day • 450ha milking platform and a 300ha-grazing block

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LK0093882©

www.farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz

Ag jobs at your fingertips

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WANTED FORESTRY/ WOODLOTS

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A comfortable 4-bedroom house with the normal range of outbuildings along with excellent employment package will be offered to the appropriate candidate.

Applications close: August 31

0800 383 5266

General shepherding duties on a 10,000su property. Tuscan Hills is a well-known hill-country property in the Pahiatua district.

Applicants should have the following: • A strong team of working dogs • A strong work ethic • Be a team player • Display high quality stockmanship • A ‘can do’ attitude to modern farming techniques

Please apply in writing with all relevant details to: Mr Brent Gowler Station Manager, Taumata Moana Station 767 Taumatatotara West Rd, RD8, Te Kuiti, 3988 Phone: 07 876 7422 or 027 220 2161 Email: tmsmanager@outlook.com

• LEASE • BUY • SERVICE • COMPLIANCE

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Taumata Moana has developed a ‘Farm Pride’ programme which encompasses all facets of highly motivated farming business with a culture of producing premium stock. This position will work closely with the Station Manager and on all aspects of farm management.

can market directly to them through

Call or email us for your free copy of our plans Email: info@ezylinehomes.co.nz Phone: 07 572 0230 Web: www.ezylinehomes.co.nz

Farmers Weekly.

Wallace Stewart Managing Director/ Owner

classifieds@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

FOR SALE CLASSIFIEDS REACH EVERY FARMER IN NZ FROM MONDAY Advertise in the NZ Farmers Weekly $2.10 + GST per word - Please print clearly Name: Phone:

Classifieds ANIMAL HANDLING

DOGS FOR SALE

DOGS WANTED

GOATS WANTED

FLY OR LICE problem?

Electrodip - The magic eye sheepjetter since 1989 with unique self adjusting sides.

Incredible chemical and time savings with proven effectiveness.

Phone 07 573 8512 w w w. e l e c t r o d i p . c o m

WHATATUTU DOG SALE. CHANGE of date and venue. Saturday 1st September at Otara Station, 319 Whatatutu Road, Te Karaka, Gisborne. Enquiries Allen Irwin 06 862 3618 or email: toromirostation@ gmail.com

HEADING DOG MAINSTAY wanted.

Good distance for hill country and work both sheep and cattle. Under 5 years old and suitable to work in a team. No dog dealers. Phone 022 077 0040.

GOATS WANTED. All weights. All breeds.

Prompt service. Payment on pick up. My on farm prices will not be beaten.

Phone David Hutchings 07 895 8845 or 0274 519 249. Feral goats mustered on a 50/50 share basis.

CRAIGCO SHEEP JETTERS. Sensor Jet. Deal to fly and Lice now. Guaranteed performance.

Unbeatable pricing.

Phone 06 835 6863. www.craigcojetters.com

6-MONTH-OLD Huntaway bitch, ready to start.

6-MONTH-old Heading bitch. Phone 06 388 0212 / 027 243 8541.

ANIMAL HEALTH www.drench.co.nz farmer owned, very competitive prices. Phone 0800 4 DRENCH (437 362).

ANIMAL SUPPLEMENTS

Address:

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, GARLIC & HONEY. 200L - $450 or 1000L - $2000 excl. with FREE DELIVERY from Black Type Minerals Ltd www.blacktypeminerals. co.nz

Email: Heading: Advert to read:

FOR ONLY $2.10 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in Farmers Weekly Classifieds. Phone Debbie on 0800 85 25 80 to book.

ATTENTION FARMERS

Return this form either by fax to 06 323 7101 attention Debbie Brown Post to Farmers Weekly Classifieds, PO Box 529, Feilding 4740 - by 12pm Wednesday or Freephone 0800 85 25 80

livestock@nzx.com – 0800 85 25 80

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 13, 2018

MASSIVE TWO DAY dog clearance sale! August 31st & September 1st, Opotiki.

70 dogs $500-$2,500.

45 day exchangeable trial. Trade in your dog!

By appointment only! www.youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos 07 315 5553.

HEADING PLAIN EYE pups. Proven workers.

Phone 07 871 9698. Te Awamutu.

STRONG EYED HEADING pups. Two male, four months. Trial bred. Phone 06 756 5867.

TUX NATIONAL HANDY yard dog trial.

Wanganui Centre. 14 & 15 September 2018.

Papahaua Station Raetihi. New and novice competitors welcome.

Enquiries and entries phone 027 262 3622. amyleemcdougal@ yahoo.co.nz - entries close 1 September.

www.gibb-gro.co.nz GROWTH PROMOTANT $5.85 per hectare + GST delivered Brian Mace 0274 389 822 07 571 0336 brianmace@xtra.co.nz

SOUTH ISLANDERS AND lower North Island.

Shipping dogs from Opotiki to Invercargill 23/8/18.

Don’t miss the bus! www.youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos 07 315 5553.

CALF TRAILER MATS

DOGS WANTED

SOFT, DURABLE, FREE draining rubber mats. Easy to clean. Call to order on 0800 686 287 – www. numat.co.nz

12 MONTHS TO 5½-yearold Heading dogs and Huntaways wanted. Phone 022 698 8195.

QUICK EASY SALE! Buying 400 dogs annually South and North Islands! No trial or breeding required.

No one buys or pays more! www.youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos 07 315 5553.

FOR ONLY $2.10 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in Farmers Weekly Classifieds.

Phone Debbie on 0800 85 25 80 to book.

FARM MAPPING YOUR FARM MAPPED showing paddock sizes.

Priced from $600 for 100ha. Phone 0800 433 855. farmmapping.co.nz

FERTILISER

GOATS. 40 YEARS experience mustering feral cattle and feral goats anywhere in NZ. 50% owner (no costs).

50% musterer (all costs).

Phone Kerry Coulter 027 494 4194.

HORTICULTURE NZ KELP. FRESH, wild ocean harvested giant kelp.

The world’s richest source of natural iodine. Dried and milled for use in agriculture and horticulture. Growth promotant / stock health food. As seen on Country Calendar. Orders to: 03 322 6115 or info@nzkelp.co.nz

FOR SALE

FORESTRY

65 R2 Angus Bulls

WEED SPRAYING BOOM SPRAY. Broad acre, brush weed control, total vegetation. Hilux gun and hose units x 2 and mist blowers for gorse, broome, blackberry control.

Covering Lower North Island. Phone 06 375 8660 or 021 396 447, email kingbilly718@gmail.com

FOR SALE CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISING

HOUSE FOR REMOVAL wanted.

North Island.

Phone 021 0274 5654.

Do you have something to sell?

PUMPS

WANTED

NATIVE FOREST FOR MILLING also Macrocarpa and Red Gum, New Zealand wide.

We can arrange permits and plans. Also after milled timber to purchase.

NEW ZEALAND NATIVE TIMBER SUPPLIERS (WGTN) LIMITED 04 293 2097 Richard.

HIGH PRESSURE WATER PUMPS, suitable on high headlifts.

Low energy usage for single/3-phase motors, waterwheel and turbine drives. Low maintenance costs and easy to service. Enquiries phone 04 526 4415, email sales@hydra-cell.co.nz

Call Debbie

0800 85 25 80 classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

RANUI ANGUS

YEARLING BULL & HEIFER SALE 12 noon Tuesday, 11th September, 2018 Karamu, 662 Rangitatau East Rd, Wanganui

YEARLING BULL & HEIFER SALE

ON OFFER: 30 yearling bulls • 35 yearling heifers

12 noon Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Matauri Angus has established itself as a leading provider of NZ based genetics in the Australasian industry.

Karamu, 662 Rangitatau East Rd, Wanganui ENQUIRIES

TO:

On offer: Lindsay Johnstone 027 445 3211 25 yearling bulls 30 yearling heifers, which Lin will Johnstone be sold in lots027 445 3213

Matauri genetics have had phenomenal success in a wide variety of environments having been used in over 200 stud herds. Matauri Reality 839 alone has had 4500 progeny analysed

by Breedplan. Sons of the Matauri sires have sold for up to $47,000 and consistently achieved high averages.

PGG WRIGHTSON AGENTS:  All cattle BVD & EBL tested  All cattle electric fence trainedStewart 027 280 2688 Callum  TB status C10  Vet inspected  Quiet temperament

Ken Roberts 027 591 8042

INQUIRIES TO: Lin Johnstone Lindsay Johnstone 06 342 9833 06 342 9795 W & K AGENTS Blair Robinson Don Newland 027 491 9974 027 242 4878

LIVESTOCK ADVERTISING

MATAURI OUTLIER F031

027 501 8182 027 492 2122 027 497 8691 027 415 4125 09 405 0357

SAWN SHED TIMBER including Black Maire.

Matai, Totara and Rimu etc. Also buying salvaged native logs.

Phone Richard Uren. NZ Native Timber Supplies. Phone 027 688 2954.

PROPERTY WANTED

Tuesday 21th August 2018 – 12.30pm 341b Matauri Bay Road, RD1, Kaeo, Northland

CONTACTS Cam Heggie Bruce Orr Neil Miller Tom Bayly Colin Maxwell

WANTED TO BUY

Livestock

annual bull sale The stud herd of 400 females is run under commercial conditions on hill country.

CAT D6B, bush rigged.

CAT 22. Restored. CAT D2.

Side tank. Original with Belt Pully. Two CAT D2 motors: 5J 1142 SP : 5U.18578.

Please ring 07 377 8115 before 9pm.

HERITAGE APPLE TREES. Farm pack specials. www.tastytrees. co.nz – Phone 09 408 5443 or text 027 346 7645.

DOLOMITE, NZ’s finest Magnesium fertiliser.

Bio-Gro certified, bulk or bagged. 0800 436 566.

E S T A B L I S H E D FURNITURE REMOVAL business for sale based in Taupo, 0274 525 301 for enquiries.

TRACTORS FOR SALE

Are you looking in the right direction?

For more info please email colin@matauriangus.com or visit www.matauriangus.com

farmersweekly.co.nz

LK0093857©

42

LK0093838©

JERSEY COWS WANTED

Gary Falkner Jersey Marketing Service PH: 027 482HIGH 8771INDEXING or 07 846 JERSEY 4491 & JERSEY

HIGH GENETIC QUALITY HERD JERSEYCROSS BULL SALE

WILLIAMS JERSEYS BW 143/50 PW 161/67LTD RA 100% Monday 10Th September 2018 for at 11.30am (in top 10 All Breeds NZ )

“Excuse me sir,” he starts, “but I noticed you look just like me!”

The second man turns around and says “Yeah, I noticed the same thing, where you from?”

“I’m from Dublin”, second man stunned says, “Me too! What street do you live on?”

R2 YR ANG & XBRED HEIFERS

R1 YR ANG & ANG X STEERS 230-280kg

BUY NOW. PAY LATER.

www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

LateMid September Delivery July Delivery

*T&Cs apply. No repayments due until 31 January 2019. A $50 admin fee applies.

2016 Born WANTED Friesian Heifers (F12+) 2017 Born Heifers

STOCK WANTED Beef/Beef X R1 Heifers – CK Beef/Beef X R2 Heifers – CK Friesian/Beef X Bulls 3-400kg – CK Store Lambs – CK R1 Angus Heifers – RS R1 Angus/Friesian X Heifers – RS

Luke McBride 027 493 304 8957 0533 Wayne Doran 027 Wayne Doran 027 493 8957 Luke McBride 027 304 0533 South Island Island South

RichardHarley Harley 021 021765 765430 430 Richard GregCollins Collins 027 481 481 9772 9772 Greg 027

LK0093719©

Large number of Friesian A2A2 cows (900-1000) required for June 1st 2019 delivery.

GOING GOING GONE!

Also, 200-300 Friesian in-calf A2A2 heifers.

Call Nigel

STOCK FOR SALE 200 Aut 2018 Friesian/Hereford Heifers – CK

Must be fully recorded, high capacity stock.

Contact: Bill Sweeney 027 451 5310 John Watson 027 494 1975 Or your local NZFLL agent

0800 85 25 80 livestock@globalhq.co.nz

Fonterra suppliers only.

T&Cs apply: For full terms & conditions visit NZFARMSOURCE.CO.NZ/LIVESTOCK

Contracts avail for Friesian Weaner Bulls – CK

Office 07 823 4559 BYLLIVESTOCK.CO.NZ byllivestock

A2A2 COWS WANTED

LIVESTOCK ADVERTISING

on your Service Bull purchases with Farm Source Livestock at auction or in paddock during Sept - Nov 2018.

Friesian Bulls 380-450kg – RS

Aaron Clapperton 027 496 7410 Richard Seavill 021 169 8276 / 07 825 4984 Chris Smith 027 496 7413 / 06 756 8968 Chris Kyle 027 496 7412 / 07 883 7412 Bryce Young 027 496 7411

SIL Carcass Scanned FE Testing

PLUS EARN

LK0093487©

North Island Island North

FE Coopworth FE Romney x Coop Texel x Coopworth Suffolk Suftex Texel x Poll Dorset

With 0% interest on your Service Bull purchases with Farm Source Livestock Bull Plan.*

Export Contract Contract Export $1250 GrossAngus Friesian, Jersey,

PINE PARK RAMS

Edward Sherriff 06 327 6591 021 704 778

SERVICE BULLS

R1 & R2 YR FRIES BULLS

A Financing Solution For Your Farm E info@rdlfinance.co.nz

LK0093872©

So, he goes over to the man and taps him on the shoulder.

SIL EWES or EWES or LAMBS R2 YR STEERS 400-500kgs

43

STORE LAMBS 28-40kg

Ross Dyer 0274 333 381

PH: 027 482 8771 or 07 846 4491

One sunny day in Ireland, a group of men were sitting in a pub, drinking Guinness, when one of the group turns to the other and says “You see that man over there? He looks just like me! I think I’m going to go over there and talk to him.”

Red Devon registered pure bred yearling bulls, docile, BVD negative.

Closed herd.

Phone 06 375 8589

On farm Okaihau Northland

Many cows contracted to LIC for 2011 matings

SALE TALK

STOCK REQUIRED

LK0093792©

•

* 55 one and two year bulls • Due to calve from 16-7-12, 6.5 weeks * From one the leading suppliers ABofJersey and Kiwi cross of bulls to the national dairy herd to be 420 cows after non • Estimated culls,toolder cows & Sires 5% rejection * Supplierpregnant, of many bulls LIC Premier • Production last season 347kgs ms/cow, * BW range 160 – 200 + 1000kgs ms/ha, on rolling to steeper * All bulls contoured weighed, G3 profiled, BVDpalm tested andor maize farm, no meal, kernel vaccinated fed.

• Young stock also available * All bulls owner replacement bred and reared * Delivery to suit purchaser requirement Outstanding genetics & potential to be one of * Catalogues giving allleading details suppliers available 27th August to the countries of Genetics dairyatindustry for years to come. Full details * Viewthe on line www.brianrobinsonlivestock.com available. or www.pggwrightson.co.nz Enquiries to the sole marketing agents: Enquiries to Brian Robinson Livestock Ltd Brian Ph Kevin 027Robinson 291 5575,BRLL PH: 0272 410051 Brian 0272 410 051 or or 07 8583132 PGG Wrightson Gary Falkner Vaughan 027 496 8706 Service Jersey Marketing

livestock@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

FOR SALE

LK0093865©

Outstanding genetics & potential to be one of the countries leading suppliers of Genetics to the dairy industry for years to come. Full details available.

Jersey cows 600, Jersey in calf heifers 100, wanted for endto of May delivery.

Must have good figures, Enquiries the 19 sole marketing agents: purchaser ready to go now.

Brian Robinson BRLL Please call Brian on PH: 0272 410051 0272 or 41007 0518583132

Livestock

LK0093867©

•

1000kgs ms/ha, on rolling to steeper contoured farm, no meal, palm kernel or maize fed.

THEreplacement NEW ZEALAND FARMERS WEEKLY – August 13, 2018 Young stock also available

SECURE YOUR SERVICE BULLS NOW

Talk to your local Livestock Agent, on 0800 548 339 or email NZFSS.LIVESTOCK@FONTERRA.COM

TURANGANUI ROMNEYS

“McCarthy Street”, the second man replies.

“Me too! What number is it?”

The first man announces “162”.

Second man shocked says, “Me too! What are your parent’s names?”. replies, and

LK0093697©

First man “Connor Shannon”.

“Reliable performance you can count on”

Second man awestruck says, “Mine too! This is unbelievable!”

So, they buy more Guinness and continue their conversation.

It came time for the bartender to change shifts.

TODD CANDY

The new bartender comes in and catches up with what’s been happening, and asks “What’s new today?”

The first bartender replies: “Oh, the Murphy twins are drunk again.”

Kokonga East Road, off Waikaretu Valley Road, RD5 Tuakau Kokonga Farm is approximately 40 minutes from Ngaruawahia, 50 minutes from Mercer, Rangiriri and Huntly via Glen Murray.

HOLMES WARREN 06 307 7802

HOLMES WARREN

MIKE WARREN

MIKE 0274 465 312 TODD WARREN 06 307 7841 CANDY RD2 FEATHERSTON 5772

JARRED PEAD 0274 795 006

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Dairy

Grain & Feed

MILK PRICE FORECAST ($/KGMS) 2018-19

SHEEP MEAT

DOMESTIC

FONTERRA 2018-19

AGRIHQ 2018-19

7.00

6.40

AS OF 24/05/2018

AS OF 09/08/2018

MILK PRICE COMPARISON

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Canterbury (NZ$/t) 421

340

NI mutton (20kg)

5.15

5.15

4.10

399

350

SI lamb (17kg)

8.05

8.00

6.60

Feed Barley

413

400

355

SI mutton (20kg)

5.40

5.40

4.15

219

Export markets (NZ$/kg) 8.66

9.06

7.98

6.5

Maize Grain

433

433

418

6.0

PKE

324

285

220

WMP GDT PRICES AND NZX FUTURES

324

286

UK CKT lamb leg

* Domestic grain prices are grower bids delivered to the nearest store or mill. PKE and fertiliser prices are ex-store. Australian prices are landed in Auckland.

7.5

INTERNATIONAL Last week

Prior week

Last year

Wheat - Nearest

313

306

234

Corn - Nearest

219

215

201

412

521

372

North Island 17kg lamb

8.5

6.5 5.5

CBOT futures (NZ$/t)

4.5 8.5

South Island 17kg lamb

7.5

NZ venison 60kg stag

Australia (NZ$/t) APW Wheat

3500 3000 2500 2000 Oct 17 Jan 18 Apr 18 C2 Fonter r a WMP

Jul 18 Oct 18 NZX WMP Futur es

ASW Wheat

483

478

363

Feed Wheat

479

475

284

Feed Barley

489

483

332

138

128

92

PKE (US$/t) Ex-Malaysia

600

$/kg

4000 US$/t

6.80

419

7.0

What are the AgriHQ Milk Prices?

The AgriHQ Seasonal milk price is calculated using GDT results and NZX Dairy Futures to give a full season price. The AgriHQ Spot milk price is an indicative price based solely on the prices from the most recent GDT event. To try this using your own figures go to www.agrihq.co.nz/toolbox

8.20

421

Waikato (NZ$/t)

May 18 Jul 18 AgriHQ Seasonal

6.5

500

4005.5 300

4.5 Oct Oct

Dec

Dec

Feb

Feb

5‐yr ave NZX DAIRY FUTURES (US$/T) Nearby contract

Prior week

vs 4 weeks ago

WMP

2960

2980

2975

SMP

1995

2040

AMF

5675

Butter

4975

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Last yr

Aug

Aug

This yr

Last week

Prior week

Last year

1930

Urea

485

485

477

Coarse xbred ind.

3.10

3.12

2.73

5655

6030

Super

304

304

309

Nth Isl 37m

3.20

3.42

2.95

5000

5300

DAP

702

Sth Isl 35m

4.55

4.55

3.10

750

750

450

Oct Nov Latest price

Dec Jan 4 w eeks ago

Feb

Sharemarket Briefing TRADE tensions continue. China retaliated to the United States’ threat of increased tariffs by saying it would impose tariffs of 5-25% on US$60 billion of US goods including agricultural and chemicals products. While most equity markets traded lower through the week the US market bucked the trend and continues to rise as strong earnings and a solid jobs report offset fears of escalating trade tensions.

The August reporting season is now upon us, with a handful of companies reporting before things get busy over the next fortnight. Sky City reported a rebound in net profit, driven by its VIP international business customers. The company reported net profit of $169.5m for the year to June, up from $44.9m in the prior year. Key drivers were strong growth in international business, continued growth in Auckland and improved performance in Adelaide.

In Australia, Transurban produced another solid full year result, though FY19 distribution guidance was below market expectations. The company awaits the result of its bid on Westconnex motorways. Commonwealth Bank announced its first full year net profit decline for the first time since 2009 due to regulatory fines.

Market commentary provided by Craigs Investment Partners

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

8940

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

8666

$/kg

350 250 150 Aug 14

NZ venison 60kg stag

4.5

600

c/k kg (net)

3000

Coarse xbred wool indicator

5.5

CANTERBURY FEED PRICES

NZ$/t

US$/t

Jun

(NZ$/kg)

3100

16546

Jun

NZ average (NZ$/t)

WMP FUTURES - VS FOUR WEEKS AGO

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

Apr

WOOL

* price as at close of business on Thursday

Sep

Apr

FERTILISER

Last price*

2900

Last year

8.20

Feed Wheat PKE

Mar 18 AgriHQ Spot Fonterra forecast

Last week Prior week

NI lamb (17kg)

Milling Wheat

7.5

5.5 Jan 18

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

c/kkg (net)

$/kgMS

Sheep

$/kg

44

Aug 15 Feed barley

Aug 16

Aug 17 PKE spot

3.5

400 300

2.5

Oct Jul

Dec Sep 5‐yr ave

Feb Nov

Apr Jan Last yr

Jun Mar

Aug May

Jul

This yr

Dollar Watch

Top 10 by Market Cap Company

Close

YTD High

YTD Low

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd

14.77

15.50

11.92

Auckland International Airport Limited

6.84

6.99

6.11

Meridian Energy Limited The a2 Milk Company Limited Spark New Zealand Limited Ryman Healthcare Limited Fletcher Building Limited Mercury NZ Limited (NS) Contact Energy Limited Air New Zealand Limited (NS)

3.14 10.49 3.81 12.93 6.98 3.34 5.74 3.34

3.22 14.62 3.90 13.20 7.96 3.45 5.96 3.43

2.75 7.66 3.28 10.27 5.74 3.08 5.15 2.86

Listed Agri Shares

500

5pm, close of market, Thursday

Company

Close

YTD High

YTD Low

The a2 Milk Company Limited

10.490

14.620

7.660

Comvita Limited

5.680

9.210

5.600

Delegat Group Limited

9.600

9.600

7.510

Foley Family Wines Limited

1.480

1.610

1.400

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

5.110

6.660

5.000

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

0.730

3.000

0.700

New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd

2.890

2.990

1.840

PGG Wrightson Limited

0.680

0.720

0.560

Sanford Limited (NS)

7.710

8.500

7.350

Scales Corporation Limited

4.570

5.000

4.350

Seeka Limited

6.470

7.010

5.800

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

10.900

11.650

6.260 3.100

T&G Global Limited

3.100

3.300

Tegel Group Holdings Limited

1.140

1.240

0.810

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity

16546

17332

14417

S&P/NZX 50 Index

8940

9084

8059

S&P/NZX 10 Index

8666

8848

7640

A FALLING kiwi dollar This Prior Last NZD vs looks certain after a week week year surprise, dovish stance USD 0.6608 0.6733 0.7335 by the Reserve Bank. The EUR 0.573 0.5812 0.623 bank spoke of a balanced AUD 0.8962 0.9151 0.9288 OCR outlook – up or GBP 0.515 0.5174 0.5637 down – but Westpac Bank Correct as of 9am last Friday strategist Imre Speizer said its wording indicates slightly more chance of a cut than a rise. It depends on data and RBNZ economists are more pessimistic than Westpac’s.

Even if there isn’t a cut, rate rises are at least two years away.

The kiwi fell to a low of US$0.6612, the lowest since March 2016. Speizer had forecast it reaching 0.64 by mid next year but now thinks that could be reached before the end of this year, a boost for farm returns. NZ had lower growth than the United States, has lost its interest rate advantage, US rates are still rising and the US dollar is strengthening.

Record speculative short positions held by international investors mean there is potential for a “vicious snapback” for the kiwi at some point, before going lower again.

The kiwi eased against all the major currencies after the RBNZ comment and Speizer expects the move to continue as central banks in Europe, Britain and Japan are effectively tightening monetary policy or, in Australia’s case, taking a steady line. He expects year-end levels of A$0.88, €0.55 to 0.555 and ¥71 to ¥72. Though Brexit uncertainty is a factor for Britain, the kiwi could go below £0.50.

Alan Williams

Markets

CANTERBURY FEED WHEAT

SI SLAUGHTER STEER

NI SLAUGHTER LAMB

($/T)

($/KG)

PRIME LAMB MEDIAN AT FEILDING

($/KG)

($/HD)

8.20

Cattle & Deer BEEF Last week

Prior week

Last year

NI Steer (300kg)

5.60

5.55

5.50

NI Bull (300kg)

5.40

5.35

5.45

NI Cow (200kg)

4.50

4.50

4.40

SI Steer (300kg)

5.55

5.50

5.40

SI Bull (300kg)

5.30

5.30

5.10

SI Cow (200kg)

4.50

4.40

4.40

US imported 95CL bull

6.66

6.62

6.49

US domestic 90CL cow

6.97

7.13

7.01

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

North Island steer (300kg)

6.0

$/kg

5.5 5.0 4.5 4.0 South Island steer (300kg)

6.0

NZ venison 60kg stag

5.5

c/k kg (net)

$/kg

600 5.0 500

400 4.5 300 4.0

Oct Oct

Dec Dec

Feb Feb

5‐yr ave

Apr Apr

Jun Jun

Aug Aug

Last yr

This yr

VENISON Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Last week Prior week

Last year

NI Stag (60kg)

11.20

11.20

9.15

NI Hind (50kg)

11.10

11.10

9.05

SI Stag (60kg)

11.40

11.40

9.15

SI Hind (50kg)

11.30

11.30

9.05

New Zealand venison (60kg Stag)

12

$/kg

11 10

NZ venison 60kg stag

c/k kg (net)

600 9 500 8 400 7

300 6

Oct Oct

Dec Dec

Feb Feb

5‐yr ave

Apr Apr Last yr

Jun Jun

Aug Aug This yr

high lights

186

$2.80-$2.90/kg $715-$795 R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 400-460kg, at Wellsford

R1 Angus heifers, 185-215kg, at Matawhero

Prices for ewes with lambs at foot soaring

T

HE good news for sheep farmers continues as the first decent yarding of ewes with lambs at foot met a big and very keen buying bench at Stortford Lodge, with prices lifting $20 all counted on early sales last year. Romney ewes with multiple lambs made $122-$124.50 all counted, while single lines traded at $115-$119 all counted.

NORTHLAND NORTHLAND Spring fair action headed to WELLSFORD on Monday with adult steers and bulls. Numbers were down.

Buyers were mainly from Northland.

It was all about dairy-beef. There was a slight premium paid for straight beef lines with R2 Angus, 323-367kg, at $3.07-$3.08/kg, the only cattle to exceed $3/kg. Angus and Angus-Hereford, 394-464kg, and beef-Friesian, $2.79-$2.83/kg. In the Hereford-Friesian pens almost all lines in a 400-566kg range (including R3) made $2.80-$2.90/kg, which for the heavier end was firm, mediums softer and lighter steady. Lesser lines and Angus-Friesian more commonly sold at a discounted $2.76-$2.83/kg, which was also the range for 366456kg Hereford-cross.

The market at KAIKOHE was consistent with the previous week for 550 head, PGG Wrightson agent Vaughan Vujcich reported. Demand for R2 steers was strong and good beef and beef-Friesian sold up to $2.85-$2.92/kg with second cuts earning $2.75-$2.82/kg and off types, $2.50-$2.60/kg. The heifer market was variable at $2.65/kg up to $2.85/ kg for a mix of beef and beef-Friesian lines. A consignment of Angus steers and heifers were the highlight in the R1 pens, though heifers sold below expectations. The steers mainly weighed 250-270kg and traded at $3.45-$3.49/kg, with the heifers of similar weight and some lines

STANDING ROOM ONLY: A scene from the recent Temuka in-lamb ewe fair.

managing to hit $3/kg. Simmental steers had more weight and traded at $3.30-$3.40/kg, while a lot of remaining heifers sold about $2.65/ kg. Beef bulls mainly fetched $3$3.30/kg. Good prices attracted a few more cows to market with about 80 head penned. In-calf dairy cows sold for $2.40/kg, with empty lines earning $2.20-$2.30/kg. Lighter types sold for $1.80-$2.00/kg.

AUCKLAND AUCKLAND Weather-derived demand meant positive results for store cattle at PUKEKOHE on Saturday August 4 and prime cattle continued to be chased. The top line of steers, 742kg, fell just shy of $3.00/kg at $2.99/kg, with 505kg returning $2.81/kg. Heifers were solid as 456-493kg also sold close to $3.00/kg at $2.89-$2.93/kg. Good boner cows earned $2.10/kg, and medium $1.67/kg. R2 heifer prices were consistent as 407-425kg sold to

$2.70-$2.80/kg, though more variance was seen on a mixed yarding of R2 steers. Good lines, 427kg, managed $2.88/kg, though lesser sorts, 454kg, made $2.53/kg. Small R1 crossbred heifers, 184-200kg, returned $540$760, while weaner steers, 135-166kg, made solid returns at $620-$690.

COUNTIES COUNTIES A whiff of spring in the air helped fuel demand for store cattle at TUAKAU last Thursday. About 400 steers and heifers were on offer, Kane Needham of PGG Wrightson reported.

The steer section included a pen of 460kg Hereford-Friesian at $2.80/ kg with Shorthorn, 433kg, making $2.86/kg and 385kg Hereford-Friesian, $2.96/kg. In a good line-up of R1 steers, mostly Hereford-Friesian, prices lifted. Hereford-Friesian, 247kg, made $880 and 180kg, $775.

Continued page ??

29, 2017

NOVEMBER

EYE LIVESTOCK TTLE TARANAKI CA

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ph 0800 85

info@agrihq.co.nz

600kg

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60

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45

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018

Markets

46 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018 In the heifer section, 388-440kg Hereford-Friesian earned $2.93$2.94/kg. Good R1 heifers of same breed and 198-214kg made $745$740, and 181kg, $700.

The market at Wednesday’s prime sale was also strong with steers and heifers up 10c/kg and the better cattle surpassing $3/kg.

Heavy steers traded at $3-$3.10/ kg, medium $2.94-$2.98/kg, and lighter $2.88-$2.93/kg. Heavy prime heifers fetched $2.93-$3/ kg, medium $2.88-$2.92/kg and lighter beef heifers $2.82-$2.87/kg.

In-calf cows sold at $2.22-$2.42/ kg and well-conditioned empty Friesian, $2.05-$2.20/kg. Medium Friesian earned $1.90-$2/kg and lighter boners $1.75-$1.87/kg.

Prices lifted again at Monday’s sheep sale. The best prime lambs returned $180-$201, goodmedium $150-$175 and lighter $130-$145. Good store lambs traded at $110-$125, and medium $90-$110. The heaviest prime ewes fetched $160-$190 and medium $110-$135. Light ewes sold well, making $85-$100.

WAIKATO It was four seasons in one day at FRANKTON last Wednesday.

Throughput was reduced and quality rewarded. R2 cattle bucked the trend and increased in number, due to larger entry of heifers. Traditional-cross heifers, 430-445kg, made $2.89-$2.93/ kg, Hereford-Friesian, 391-469kg, $2.80-$2.90/kg, four at 337kg, were well contested at $3.17/kg.

Hereford-Friesian steers, 421kg, $3.04/kg, Friesian bulls, 440441kg, $2.59/kg. R1 steer returns were solid as Angus, 201-259kg, earned $695-$885, and HerefordFriesian, 273-284kg, $945-$955.

The heifer market was also strong with beef-cross lines, 177-203kg, earning $590-$625, and beef-dairy, 183-222kg, $620-$660. R1 bulls 252-292kg traded at $705-$815 regardless of breed.

Returns varied in the autumnborn R1 pens based on type.

Hereford-Friesian steers, 118kg, lifted to $665. Angus-Hereford heifers, 98-100kg, followed suit to $405-$420, while Herefordcross, 97-121kg softened to $360-$400. Angus-Friesian,

103kg and 108kg, highlighted the variability returning $390 and $485 respectively. Hereford-cross bulls, 102-120kg, lifted to $432$535, while Hereford-Friesian, 137kg, fetched $665. Prime cattle numbers dropped to just 55. Beefbred steers, 535-586kg, traded at $2.93-$2.99/kg, while three 543kg South Devon-cross, managed $3.02/kg. Heifers were also solid with all 457-545kg trading at $2.89-$2.94/kg. Five RWB Hereford-Friesian cows, 542kg, managed $1260, $2.32/kg.

BAY OF PLENTY BAY OF PLENTY RANGIURU offered a small yarding of cattle last Tuesday.

R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 392-490kg, traded on a firm market at $2.86-$2.95/kg, with 407-432kg Angus and AngusHereford at similar levels. Older heifers, mainly autumn-born lines, Hereford-Friesian, 289kg, returned $930, $3.22/kg, while most R1 heifers were of same breeding and sold for $780-$790 on a lifting market. R1 beef and beef-cross, 253-282kg, sold for $820-$920, $3.21-$3.30/kg, while seven Hereford-Friesian, 152kg, managed $700. Two lines of Hereford-cross cows, run with a Hereford bull though lighter in weight sold for $970-$1240, with the top line selling up to $2.78/kg.

Prime prices lifted and the heaviest steers at 700kg plus made $3.06-$3.08/kg with 542-604kg Hereford-Friesian, $2.93-$2.96/kg.

One line of four Charolais heifers, 592kg, made $3.04/kg.

TARANAKI TARANAKI Of 100 cattle at TARANAKI on Wednesday no lines were in double figures. R2 beef-Friesian steers, 458-467kg, made $3.06$3.12/kg while two lighter heifers, 305kg, pushed the $3/kg mark.

Heavier Angus and HerefordFriesian, 390-410kg, were steady at $2.77-$2.82/kg. Two lines of R1 beef-dairy steers made $655-$675 and most heifers, $645-$700. A handful of autumn-born AngusFriesian steers, 165kg, fetched $675, as did Charolais-cross heifers the same weight.

Prime numbers were low but heifers and steers, 613-630kg,

managed $2.84-$2.87/kg, and a line of Friesian cows, 538kg, $2.03/ kg.

POVERTY BAY POVERTY BAY Small numbers of store lambs sold for steady values at MATAWHERO. Good ewe lambs were $143-$153.50 expect for a single pen which made $160.

Medium-to-light ewe lambs were $118.50-$138. Two good pens of male and mixed sex lambs were $151-$161.50.

Light mixed age Romney ewes, SIL twins, were $150.

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HAWKE’S BAY HAWKE’S BAY Large numbers of lambs continue to come forward at STORTFORD LODGE but the highlight was ewes with lambsat-foot market. A yarding of just under 1840 prime lambs were penned last Monday. A line of very heavy male lambs topped their section at $230 and very heavy cryptorchid sold to $220. Good to heavy male and cryptorchid lines made $170-$189, while heavy rams made $190-$208. Heavy mixed sex lines lifted to $160$187, as did ewe lambs to $198.

Heavy lines lifted to $163-$194.50 and good to very good, $145-$162.

Ewe throughput halved though there was still plenty of quality.

Two-tooth ewes were firm at $125.50-$158 as were 2-4-tooth lines at $137-$151. Very heavy mixed age ewes eased to $170.50, but most of the yarding made steady returns with heavy types

earning $151-$154, medium $129$130.50, and lighter, $110-$116.

The first decent yarding of ewes with lambs-at-foot broke records last Wednesday. Romney ewes with multiple lambs sold for $122-$124.50 all counted and single lines, $115-$117. The better end of 5700 lambs made steady returns but medium to good types were variable. The heavy end of all sexes traded at $170-$176. A very heavy line of ram lambs made a record $209. Medium-good males made $151-$168 while ewe lambs eased to $136-$159. Lighter lines sold for $120-$131. Mixed sex were mainly wether and ewe lambs from the Chatham’s at $145-$169.

A medium yarding of store cattle sold to solid demand. R3 Angus-cross steers, 522kg, made $3.01/kg, and R2 heifers, 431452kg, $2.92-$2.94/kg. Longer term beef-cross heifers were a mix of Angus, Hereford and Simmental and at 341-384kg sold for $3.03/ kg and $3.21/kg. R1 cattle dominated. Angus steers stayed local and better types, 303-317kg, sold for $1150-$1230, while Angus and Angus & Angus-Hereford, 228-232kg, fetched $945-$1105, $4.16-$4.22/kg. HerefordSimmental offered from a farm sale saw steers, 245-290kg, $970$1020, and heifers 256kg, $825. A good portion of the younger cattle were autumn-born, including an annual draft of Angus steers and heifers. A local buyer took home the two bigger lines of heifers, 153-178kg, for $600-$665. The one line of steers, 142kg, sold for $625.

MANAWATU MANAWATU Continuing grass growth helped bring more confidence at RONGOTEA last Wednesday.

Older cattle numbers were limited but made up for with a decent number of younger stock, New Zealand Farmers Livestock agent Darryl Harwood reported. Friesian boner cows, 535-580kg, firmed to $1.68-$1.72/kg, while in-calf lines made $1160. Shorthorn bulls, 830kg, cracked $2000 when sold for $2.54/kg.

In the store pens R2 HerefordFriesian heifers, 469kg, made $2.84/kg, though bulls, 480kg, dropped to $2.19/kg. R1 Friesian

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steers, 290kg, made $790, and crossbred, 250kg, $670. Friesian bulls, 170-310kg, at $370-$600, and Hereford-Friesian, 240kg, $600. Angus-cross and crossbred $450-$480. Hereford-Friesian heifers, 256kg, managed $820, though most other lines of all breeds traded at $320-$510.

Autumn-born Hereford-Friesian weaner bulls, 112-117kg, made $570-$600, heifers, 96-107kg, $415-$460. Lesser bulls sold for $340 to $410 and heifers, $305$350. Calf prices were firm as Friesian bulls made $100-$220 and Hereford-Friesian, $120-$265.

Heifers of same breeding sold for $80-$205, and Angus-cross, $80$100.

Mixed sex lambs were strong at $151-$168.

At FEILDING last Monday top price climbed again with 24 very heavy males reaching $236 but a good number of other lines sold in excess of $200. The cheapest of the bigger pens was $148-$149 for mixed sex with most of all sexes trading at $166-$226. Ewe numbers fell and the market was firm. A very heavy line of 102 mixed age sold to $190.50, while good types achieved $139-$150, and medium, $113-$119.

Numbers-wise the cattle sale was hardly worth a mention but persistent bidding from two players for the Friesian cows pushed prices up. The market gained 30c/kg and all bar two cows sold for $2.30-$2.39/kg. The Monday feeder calf sale offered up 320 head with many medium coloured heifers that sold to limited interest. They traded at $35-$80, with better heifers at $150-$230. Friesian bulls firmed and Hereford-Friesian were steady. Medium to good Friesian made $160-$240, and HerefordFriesian, $130-$265. Angus-cross sold for $75-$190 and Charolaiscross, $245.

Day two of the MANFIELD PARK calf sales met good interest for well-presented calves. Good Simmental-Friesian bulls topped the sale at $285, while good Hereford-Friesian and Friesian traded at $200-$265. Medium Simmental-Friesian sold for $170$200 and Hereford-Friesian, $135-

Markets

$170. Medium Friesian bulls made $155-$185, and small, $90-$125.

Angus-Friesian traded at $110$170, similar to the HerefordFriesian heifers. Angus-Friesian and Simmental-Friesian heifers returned $150.

You wouldn’t have guessed that there were even less store cattle on offer at FEILDING if only saw the rostrum. Very large buyer numbers understandably strengthen quite a few sections of the sale.

Traditional R2 steers, 485-515kg, lifted a few cents to $3.32-$3.38/ kg but other 440-500kg beef lines were at $3.21-$3.26/kg. The R2 heifers were nearly all 300-460kg Angus, making $2.92-$3.01/kg.

R2 Friesian bulls remain heavily sought after, consistently making $3.04-$3.08/kg for 470-550kg.

The flavour of the day was the R1 steers though. Traditional and South Devons, 255-280kg, were very brisk selling at $4.23-$4.47/ kg, while 200-245kg HerefordFriesians were $3.64-$4.04/kg.

Traditional heifers, 205-270kg, didn’t have the same spark at $3.60-$3.70/kg, though some nice 275kg South Devon’s were bid up to $1085, $3.97/kg. The majority of the R1 bulls were 225-255kg Friesians, steady at $3.35-$3.43/ kg.

A small selection of 110-145kg Hereford-Friesian autumn-born heifers were $492-$525, while both Friesian and beef-cross bulls, 105150kg, were mainly $600-$665.

Numbers in the sheep pens took a dive as only 6000 lambs and 500 in-lamb ewes were trucked in. The lack of lambs squeezed even more cash out of buyers’ pocket, taking the average price through the main pens to $160/ hd. The strongest for the day were some male lambs at $185.50, but as a general rule good males were $167-$179 and medium lines $141-$150. Ewe lambs barely sold to a discount on the males either.

Good ewe lambs lines were quick selling at $167.50-$174.50 and the rest of the decent pens ranged across $150-$165. Even the lighter pens were a long way from a bargain at $124-$148.

The seven pens of in-lambs ewes met fairly wide-spread interest given the numbers

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018 offered, though good quality definitely worked in their favour too. Good mixed age Romney ewes accounted for a large chunk of the sale, and out of these some scanning 213% to a Poll Dorset ram took out top dollar at $211. Two pens, SIL 165-170%, were $204-$208, just above an unscanned line which made $201 CANTERBURY CANTERBURY A consistently strong market across all classes was evident in the sheep pens at CANTERBURY PARK last Tuesday. Lambs were evenly split between store and prime pens and a dominant Mid Canterbury buyer helped lift the store market. Heavy mixed sex made $170-$174, with good types lifting to $155-$166. Medium lines returned $133-$154 and lighter, $125-$155. Most prime lambs traded at $160-$225. Very heavy prime ewes made $260-$268, with medium-good to good steady at $156-$185. Light-medium ewes made $119-$137 and medium, $140-$154.

Heavier steers softened but were still strong at $2.80-$2.95/kg.

Forward stores were the highlight though with most trading at $3$3.10/kg for all breeds. Local trade buyers lifted the heifer market and Angus-cross, 406-502kg, improved to $2.90-$3.05/kg, while Herefordcross, 423-616kg returned $2.77$2.93/kg.

Good contracts offered for steers added more depth to the buying bench. Angus and AngusHereford, 423-493kg, lifted to $3.22-$3.29/kg, while lighter Angus-Hereford made $3.36$3.45/kg, easily bettering the R1 prices. Buyers were more selective in the R1 pens. Heifers almost outpriced the steers and HerefordFriesian, 212-254kg, made $730$800, while 269kg steers fetched $835. A few good lines of Anguscross and Limousin-cross steers, 270-292kg, managed $900-$930.

Records continued to be smashed for both store and prime lambs at COALGATE on Thursday as 1600 prime lambs sold to a larger bench of buyers and prices lifted. Over 500 head made $200-$230 and most of the rest, $171-$198. Store lamb

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numbers dropped below 400 head. Most easily traded at $143$159. Ewe numbers were also low.

Two-tooths traded at $147-$161 and most mixed age, $120-$169.

Heavier ewes sold up to $180$212.

One vendor offered 42 of the 66 cattle penned, which included all the bulls, store cattle and one cow.

They were mainly Welsh Black and the biggest section in store pens was R1 bulls, 295-323kg, which sold for $730-$800. Four 850kg bulls made $2.52-$2.61/kg, and 592-727kg, $2.59-$2.65/kg.

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Those with room left to grow and 500-525kg sold at a discounted $2.44-$2.51/kg. A small offering of prime steers sold at $2.94-$2.99/kg for 620770kg, while most beef heifers, 483-530kg, made $2.78-$2.84/kg.

A small offering of cows featured 626kg Friesian at $2.06/kg.

SOUTH CANTERBURY SOUTH CANTERBURY The record lamb prices continued at TEMUKA last Monday and a big drop in store lamb volume made life harder for buyers. Budgets starting at $138 were needed for the mainly mixed sex line-up, though that was only for a handful of light lambs at $137-$140. The remainder varied from medium types to heavy, but a tight price range of $150-$167 meant per head budgets were in play. One line of medium-good wethers sold for $165. Budgets of $170 plus were required for prime

lambs with over half selling for $190-$221. Ewes topped at $256.

A few sold for $90-$125 though most of the trading was at $130$188. A line of 20 in-lamb ewes sold to $214 while nine ewes with nine lambs-at-foot made $105 all counted.

An easy day in the rostrum had just 153 head penned. One buyer dominated the cow market, taking home most of the dairy and beef lines. Friesian cows, 471-568kg, lifted 20-25c/kg to 2.13-$2.18/ kg, while heavier types, 580605kg, were firm at $2.23-$2.26/ kg. Angus cows sold in two main price ranges of $2.20-$2.30/kg for 530-595kg, and $2.39-$2.44/kg for 600kg plus.

Strong demand from a wide bench of buyers for prime cattle meant a firm to lifting tone. Highyielding steers easily cracked $3/ kg, with all beef and beef-cross lines trading at $2.90/kg and better. A lone Angus heifer, 590kg, made $3.04/kg and Murray Grey, 565kg, $3.05/kg, though for better yielding types with weight $2.95$2.98/kg was common. Those more local trade sold at $2.77$2.86/kg.

OTAGO OTAGO As store lamb numbers dwindle buyers are clamoring to secure what they can at BALCLUTHA, and all types sold to strong demand, PGG Wrightson agent Alex Horn reported.

Few store lambs could be found for less than $110, with top lines selling up to $140-$150, medium $130-$140 and light $110-$150.

The prime lamb market started where the store lambs finished off, as the third cuts firmed to $154$170. Heavy types sold up to $180$190, with medium lines earning $170-$180. Dry ewes continue to come out, but demand is still more than that supplied and heavy ewes firmed to $160-$190, while returns were steady for medium and lighter types at $130$160 and $100-$130 respectively.

Lower condition ewes made $80$90 and rams, $70-$90.

SOUTHLAND SOUTHLAND LORNEVILLE held another successful sale last Tuesday, with

a bigger yarding of store cattle selling on a solid market, while the sheep section continued its strong run, PGG Wrightson agent Andrew Martin reported.

The top end of the store lambs sold on a steady market at $140$150, while medium types firmed to $130-$140, and lighter $100$125. Around 10 pens of in-lamb ewes were also offered and with a range of ages and condition they varied from $140 up to $210.

There was no faulting the prime sheep section as prices were once again consistently high. Both the heavy lambs and ewes sold up to $170-$200, while second cuts of lambs returned $155-$168, and third, $145-$152. Medium ewes had a firm tone at $140-$165, while lighter types came in at $80$130.

A few more store cattle were penned than seen of late, with around 350 head on the books.

This included a decent yarding of R2 steers, of which most were beef or beef-cross. A noted lift in demand meant those around 380400kg averaged $3.00-$3.10/kg, while heifers, 350-400kg, averaged $2.98-$3.13/kg.

A good yarding of younger cattle also sold well, and included steers, 250-350kg, $930-$1105 and heifers of similar weight, $790-$1080. R1 heifers, 150-250kg, made $450$700 and bulls, $400-$790, while 120-150kg bulls returned $470$540.

In-lamb breeding ewes were a hot topic of conversation at CHARLTON last Thursday, with a number of buyers vying for lines, PGG Wrightson agent Greg Clearwater reported.

Romney four and five-shear multiples sold to $213, with singles making $163. Mixed age of same breeding fetched $196.

Store lamb prices were firm on the previous week as top lines sold to $150, medium $120-$135 and light, $85-$90.

A very small yarding of prime sheep meant buyers had to work harder and prices also firmed.

The top lambs sold to $200, while medium types returned $170$190 and light, $160. Heavy ewes earned $170, medium $160 and light $100.

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Markets

48 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 13, 2018 NI SLAUGHTER STEER

SI SLAUGHTER LAMB

SI SLAUGHTER STAG

($/KG)

($/KG)

R2 TRADITIONAL STEERS, 420490KG, AT CANTERBURY PARK

($/KG)

($/KG LW)

8.05

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$122-$124.50 $3.54-$3.63/kg high R2 Angus steers, lights Romney ewes with 355 - 395kg, at multiple lambs-at-foot at Stortford Lodge

Fonterra’s $7 looks shaky Hugh Stringleman

F

hugh.stringleman@nzx.com

ONTERRA’S $7/kg milksolids forecast now looks shaky after the latest Global Dairy Trade results disappointed.

The GDT index was unchanged, an unusual and unwelcome result after four consecutive previous falls over two months.

Lower milk production in northern hemisphere dairy regions because of drought raised expectations the GDT auction prices would rise and break the string of previous losses.

Dairy analysts said their own milk price models indicate $6.40-$6.50/kg MS and demand is weakening in China at the same time as New Zealand production builds up in the new season.

ASB senior rural economist Nathan Penny said the cumulative fall of 9% in dairy commodity prices now looks to be longer-lasting as the falling Chinese yuan stints buying power and lowers demand from the number one buying market.

The lower value of the Chinese currency is an outcome of United States trade tensions that could get worse.

“For farmers this means there’s risk to our forecast of $6.50 and Fonterra’s $7.

“We had already factored in some risk from improved NZ production this season but lower global dairy demand

LESS MILK: Drought in Europe could limit milk flows there, Rabobank senior dairy analyst says.

comes on top of this.

“The low NZD is providing some offset but not by enough to fully compensate for the overall dairy price fall.”

Penny made his comments immediately after the GDT on Wednesday morning, before the NZD fell a further 1c to US66.75 on Thursday following the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate announcement.

The NZD was off US2c since the previous GDT on July 17, during the three-week

gap between auctions.

Each US1c in currency depreciation benefits the NZ milk price by 10c/kg MS. Therefore, the dairy analysts could be unduly pessimistic by 10-20c/kg but only if the lower exchange rate persists for the rest of the season.

AgriHQ analyst Amy Castleton said her model has an exchange rate of US70c as a prediction for the whole season and that now looks too high.

Factoring in the futures

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market price movements and the GDT prices, AgriHQ took 13c off its milk price forecast, which is now $6.40.

“The headline GDT Price Index was flat but the market had anticipated a slight firming of prices which didn’t eventuate,” Castleton said.

“Volumes on offer were considerably higher than at the previous event due to the normal seasonal lift in supply.

“The current level of the AgriHQ milk price forecast and the price of milk price futures indicates Fonterra will be under considerable pressure to achieve a $7/kg milk price this season.”

Westpac senior economist Anne Boniface said the stability in dairy prices on the GDT platform is welcome and her milk price modelling allows for a little further softening in August.

Therefore, the GDT results suggest a touch of upside to Westpac’s forecast of $6.40.

As fits a Dutchheadquartered bank, Rabobank commented more on the European dairy outlook.

Senior dairy analyst Michael Harvey said the dry conditions in northwestern Europe could affect milk flows in coming months.

Ireland had rethought its 2018 production forecast and revised a 5% increased prediction to just flat on 2017.

The heatwave impact in the US is starting to knock milk fat levels, the Australian drought is a threatening crisis and in South America rising feed costs are squeezing margins for dairy farmers.

Matawhero

Ewes with lambs at foot are hot property THE country is certainly feeling very spring-like with newseason lambs romping around in paddocks and daffodils already blooming. The yards always get that spring feel when the sound Suz Bremner of young lambs calling to their AgriHQ Analyst mothers heralds the start of the ewes with lambs-at-foot market.

The good news for sheep farmers is that while it is still early days a bigger than usual yarding for this time of year at Stortford Lodge was a good indication of where this market is likely to trade and given the high prices for both lambs and ewes this year it was not surprising to see records broken.

And so to those prices – good Romney ewes with multiple lambs two-three weeks old sold for $122-$124.50 all counted while single lamb lines earned $115-$117. Just 10 years ago most ewes with LAF at both Stortford Lodge and Feilding were selling for $45-$65 all counted, with that range fairly static until 2011 when prices lifted to $75-$100, with some lines even up to $115. A market correction in 2012 saw prices return to levels of $60-$75 though onwards to 2017 they have trended up to $85-$100.

While this year’s early prices seem fairly extravagant they need to be put into perspective with the lamb and ewe markets. You don’t need me telling you again that prices are at record highs and since most of these lambs will finish early they will fit the early contracts that are available but, more importantly, those contracts put a peg in the sand where schedule prices are expected to sit and there is certainly talk out there of $9/kg CW schedules. Couple that with good prices for ewes – both at the processors and the yards – and the buyers I spoke to were comfortable paying at this new level.

If these prices continue, and I have no reason to believe they won’t, I expect to see a big lift in the number of ewes with LAF available at the yards this season. suz.bremner@nzx.com

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